OUTLINE 


OF    THE 


COURSE  OF  GEOLOGICAL  LECTURES, 


GIVEN    IN 


YALE  COLLEGE. 

0  w 


NEW  HAVEN: 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED   BY   HEZEKIAH  HOWE. 
1820. 


EARTH 

SCIENCES 

LIBRARY 


DISTRICT  OF  CONNECTICUT,  ss. 

*********       BE  IT  REMEMBERED,  That  on  the  eighth  day  of  January,  in  the  fifty 

*  "Lt   S   *  third  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  HEZE- 

|  KIAH  HOWE,  of  the  said  District,  hath  deposited  in  this  office,  the  title 

*********  of  a  Book,  the  right  whereof  he  claims  as  Proprietor,  in  the  words  fol- 

lowing, to  wit: 

"Outline  of  the  Course  of  Geological  Lectures,  given  in  Yale  College." 

In  conformity  to  the  Act  of  Congress  of  the  United  States,  entitled,  "An  Act  for 
the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  Maps,  Charts,  and  Books, 
to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  mentioned." 
And  also  to  the  Act,  entitled,  "  An  Act  supplementary  to  an  Act,  entitled,  «  An  Act 
for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  Maps,  Charts,  and 
Books,  to  the  Authors  and  Proprietors  of  such  copies  during  the  times  therein  men- 
tioned,' and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving,  and 
etching  historical  and  other  prints." 

CHARLES  A.  INGERSOLL, 

Clerk  of  the  District  of  Connecticut. 
A  true  copy  of  Record,  examined  and  sealed  by  me, 

CHARLES  A    INGERSOLL, 

Clerk  of  the  District  of  Connecticut. 


<M»  wt    '• '  «?«;*  »*£  »>i    )«f 

•  JiV  &&& 


PREFACE. 


THIS  outline  of  my  course  of  geological  lectures,  is  to  be  re- 
garded, as  a  skeleton,  furnished  indeed  with  some  of  the  princi- 
ple muscles  ;  but,  destitute  of  the  color  and  finish,  of  a  perfect 
form.  To  my  pupils,  to  whom  it  has  particular  reference,  it  may 
serve  both  as  a  guide  and  a  review,  and  should  it  prove,  in  any 
degree,  useful  to  others,  I  shall  be  gratified.  It  is  intended  as 
an  outline  of  the  philosophy  of  geology  ;  according  to  the  best 
views,  which  I  have  been  able  to  take  of  the  subject.  Those  who 
may  peruse  it,  will,  however,  do  me  the  justice  to  believe,  that 
in  the  progress  of  the  lectures,  full  details  are  given,  and  nume- 
rous specimens  of  rocks  exhibited,  both  Foreign  and  American,  in 
the  order  proposed,  with  ample  descriptions  of  their  mechanical 
and  chemical  constitution — their  organized  remains,  and  the 
order  of  their  arrangement  and  connexion,  and  some  subjects  are 
discussed  which  are  not  even  mentioned  in  this  general  sketch. 
As  it  is  the  fashion  of  the  day,  to  attribute  almost  every  thing  in 
the  earth  to  igneous  agency,  I  shall  probably  be  thought  to  be 
behind  the  present  state  of  opinion,  while  I  maintain,  that  the 
chemical  affinities,  through  the  medium  of  aqueous  solutions  of 
the  great  chemical  agents — as  well  as  of  water  itself,  have  also 
produced  important  effects  in  the  early  arrangements  of  the 
planet. 

If  Werner  attributed  too  much  to  these  causes,  may  there  not 
be  danger,  at  this  day,  of  vibrating  to  the  opposite  extreme  1  It 
is  indeed  already  proved,  that  igneous  agency  has  been  vastly 
more  extensive  than  was  formerly  believed,  and  it  is  probable  that 
evidence  of  this  kind  will  accumulate,  as  the  researches  of  well 
instructed  geologists  are  directed,  more  and  more,  to  this  impor- 
tant topic.  But,  why  exclude  any  of  the  great  powers,  which  we 


4  PREFACE. 

find  in  actual  operation  ;  or,  of  whose  ancient  activity  there  ap- 
pears probable  evidence  ? 

In  the  absence  of  positive  evidence,  it  is  perfectly  justifiable  to 
reason,  analogically,  upon  facts  and  principles,  well  ascertained 
by  experiment  and  observation ;  always  bearing  in  mind,  howev- 
er, that  there  are  probably  many  agents  and  agencies,  of  which 
we  are  still  ignorant,  and  that  the  discovery  of  some  new  power, 
or  of  some  new  mode  of  operation  in  those  already  known,  might, 
very  materially  alter,  nay,  perhaps  entirely  subvert  conclusions, 
in  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  repose  unlimited  confi- 
dence. Such  a  train  of  thought  is  far  from  being  agreeable,  for 
we  are  always  prone  to  reason,  on  every  subject,  as  if  we  under- 
stood the  whole  matter ;  but,  the  history  of  science  has  abundant- 
ly proved  that  philosophy,  after  building  splendid  systems,  has, 
in  consequence  of  its  own  discoveries,  been  often  obliged  to  re- 
turn to  the  humble  task  of  learning  its  elements  anew. 

The  arrangement  implied  in  the  following  sketch  is,  it  will  be 
perceived,  founded  upon  the  great  outlines  of  the  Wernerian  plan. 
Whatever  may  be  the  errors  and  imperfections  of  that  system, 
(for  it  undoubtedly  has  both,)  its  great  outlines  still  appear  to  be 
founded  in  truth,  and  to  present  the  best  clew  to  conduct  the 
young  pupil  through  the  labyrinths  of  geology.  It  has  become 
fashionable  to  decry  Werner ;  but,  without  being  his  blind  ad- 
mirer, I  may  be  permitted  to  ask,  who  has  done  more  for  geol- 
ogy, and  who  has  done  it  better  ? 

The  author  of  this  sketch  begs  leave  to  add,  that,  desirous  of 
following  truth  only,  he  has  kept  himself  disentangled  from  the 
prevailing  geological  systems  ;  and,  although  trained  in  geology 
principally  at  Edinburgh,  in  the  schools  both  of  fire  and  water* 
he  is  neither  Wernerian  nor  Huttonian,  Neptunian  nor  Plutonist ; 
but  simply  a  student  of  facts — a  learner,  from  those  who  cer- 
tainly know  more,  and  a  teacher  to  those  who  may  possibly 


*  Hope,  Playfair,  Murray,  Hall,  Jameson,  Seymour,  &c.  were  the  active  men  of 
that  place,  and  period,  (1805-6,)  and  several  of  them  were  then,  and  some  are  still, 
public  instructors,  or  distinguished  writers  in  geology. 


PREFACE.  5 

know  less.  Being  habitually  occupied,  as  a  part  of  his  public 
duties,  in  presenting  to  his  pupils,  the  great  facts  of  geology,  and 
in  reasoning  upon  them;  he  accepts,  with  equal  readiness,  the 
agency  of  fire  or  water,  or  other  agents,  as  they  may  appear  best 
adapted  to  explain  a  given  effect,  and  he  has  no  hesitation  in  call- 
ing in  the  aid  of  all  the  great  natural  powers,  whether  mechanical 
or  chemical,  as  there  may  be  occasion. 

So  far  as  the  following  arrangement  is  founded  upon  the  Wer- 
nerian  plan,  it  is  one  of  convenience  merely,  and  therefore  there 
is  no  hesitation  in  deviating  from  it,  or  in  substituting  other  views, 
when  they  appear  preferable. 

Had  Werner  lived  till  this  time,  he  would  probably  have  ad- 
mitted that  the  differences  between  the  trap  rocks  and  the  lavas 
have  become  evanescent,  and  that  it  is  certainly  possible,  if  not 
probable,  that  they  may  have  had  a  similar  origin. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  authors  who  banish  the  transition 
class  of  rocks,  being  still  obliged  to  describe  such  rocks,  (because 
they  exist,  and  cannot  be  annihilated  by  the  stroke  of  the  pen, 
which  erases  them  from  an  artificial  system)  are  compelled  to  di- 
vide them  between  the  primitive  and  secondary  rocks,  which  pro- 
duces confusion  and  inconvenience,  and  destroys  the  distinctness, 
which,  to  a  great  degree,  marks  the  three  great  divisions  of  prim- 
itive, transition  and  secondary.  The  rocks  of  North  America,  as 
far  as  they  have  been  examined,  correspond,  in  general,  remarka- 
bly well  with  the  great  outlines  of  Werner  ;  and  who  in  North 
America  has  done  so  much  to  develop  the  grand  features  of 
our  geology,  as  the  AMERICAN  WERNER,  WILLIAM  MACLURE, 
whose  industry  and  acumen  are  equalled  only  by  his  candor  and 
freedom  from  the  bias  of  system. 

The  views  presented  in  this  sketch  have  not  been  adopted, 
without  full  consideration  of  the  facts  upon  which  they  are 
founded. 

The  study  of  those  facts  seems  necessarily  to  conduct  us  to  the 
conclusion,  that  the  proofs  of  both  succession  and  revolution, 
connected  with  time,  and  with  both  order  and  disorder,  which 
are  so  abundant  and  decisive  in  the  crust  of  our  planet,  cannot 


6  PREFACE. 

all  be  referred  to  the  deluge.  That  great  convulsion  is  indeed 
recorded  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  in  indelible  characters,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  weigh  the  evidence  which  geology  presents  in 
support  of  it,  without  admitting,  independently  of  history  or  tra- 
dition, that  it  has  happened.  The  facts  that  must  be  referred 
to  it,  are  numerous,  and  highly  important  and  interesting. 

But  it  is  impossible,  upon  any  sound  principles  of  philosophical 
reasoning,  to  refer  to  the  same  event — a  still  more  extensive,  va- 
rious and  interesting  class  of  facts,  relating  chiefly  to  the  rocks 
composed  of  ruins  and  fragments,  and  to  those  containing  organ- 
ized remains,  in  a  mineralized  and  consolidated  state,  entombed 
in  the  solid  strata  and  mountains.  This  is  a  vast  field  of  observa- 
tion and  instruction,  and  it  is  less  known  even  to  the  greater 
number  of  intelligent  and  educated  persons,  than  almost  any  de- 
partment of  knowledge.  None  but  geologists  study  it  with  dili- 
gence, and  none  who  have  not  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
facts,  are  qualified  to  judge  of  their  importance  and  of  their  bear- 
ing. The  subject  requires,  for  full  illustration,  the  exhibition  of 
a  great  many  facts,  either  in  the  fields,  mines  and  mountains, 
or,  as  an  imperfect  substitute,  in  the  cabinet.  Persons  who  are 
entirely  destitute  of  this  species  of  information,  can  never  have 
formed  the  habit  of  comparing  one  fact  in  geology  with  anoth- 
er, and  of  thus  estimating  their  relation  to  each  other,  and  to 
the  entire  planet.  It  is  very  difficult  to  find  access,  on  this  sub- 
ject, to  many  minds,  otherwise  enlightened,  and  habituated  to  re- 
ceive and  weigh  evidence  with  candor  and  intelligence.  The 
reason  obviously  is,  that  they  are  not  in  possession  of  the  first  el- 
ementary conceptions  of  the  subject ;  if  the  facts  are  not  denied, 
they  are  neglected,  and  fail  to  make  the  impression  on  the  mind 
which  they  must  always  produce,  when  fully  understood  and 
realized.  No  well  instructed  geologist  hesitates  to  refer  them  to 
an  earlier  period  than  the  deluge,  and  to  a  widely  different  order 
of  things. 

This  distinction,  it  will  be  seen,  pervades  the  following  sketch, 
and  the  writer  believes  that  no  consistent  and  rational  account  of 
the  structure  of  the  earth  can  be  given  upon  any  other  plan. 


PREFACE.  I 

Are  the  discoveries  of  geology  consistent  with  the  history  con- 
tained in  the  book  of  Genesis? 

Respecting  the  deluge,  there  can  be  but  one  opinion,  and  that 
opinion  has  been  already  stated ;  geology  fully  confirms  the 
scripture  history  of  that  event. 

There  is  doubtless  more  difficulty  as  to  the  earlier  periods ;  but 
the  writer,  after  studying  the  subject  for  many  years,  has  formed 
the  opinion,  that  the  geological  facts  are  not  only  consistent  with 
sacred  history,  but  that  their  tendency  is  to  illustrate  and  con- 
firm it. 

It  is  true,  that  the  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  physical  science,  and 
that  its  allusions  to  physical  subjects  are,  in  the  main,  adapted  to 
common  apprehensions.  Still,  there  are  two  great  events  re- 
corded in  it,  which,  although  they  have  a  momentous  moral  bear- 
ing, are,  in  their  nature,  entirely  physical ;  we  allude  to  the  crea- 
tion and  arrangement  of  the  planet,  and  to  the  deluge  which  was 
made  to  sweep  over  its  surface.  Why  should  any  one  refuse  to 
attend  to  a  history  of  these  two  stupendous  events,  merely  be- 
cause that  history  professes  to  have  proceeded  from  the  same  au- 
thor as  the  work  itself;  and  why  should  we  suppose  that  the 
brief  notices  of  the  great  physical  facts,  connected  with  a  phys- 
ical creation  and  a  physical  destruction,  are  not  correctly  stated, 
in  this  earliest  and  most  venerable  of  histories? 

If  all  our  discoveries  regarding  the  surface  and  the  interior  of 
the  planet  tend,  when  properly  understood,  to  confirm  the  credibil- 
ity of  both  these  events,  and  to  enable  us  to  discriminate  between 
the  circumstances  and  evidence  which  belong  to  them  respective- 
ly— what  moral  consideration  can,  in  this  case,  forbid  a  happy 
application  of  the  discoveries  of  science,  and  why  should  science 
refuse  to  lend  its  aid  to  the  support  of  moral  truth ! 

YALE  COLLEGE,  January  12,  1829. 

REMARK. 

The  succeeding  sketch  is  not  intended  to  contain  minute  de- 
scriptions of  rocks,  but  is  occupied,  principally,  with  their  general 
characters — their  probable  origin  as  regards  the  immediate  phys- 
ical agents,  and  the  order  of  time  in  which  they  were  deposited. 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 


GENERAL  OBJECT  OF  GEOLOGY. 

THE  object  of  this  science  is  to  ascertain  as  far  as  possible,  the 
structure  of  the  earth ;  the  nature  of  the  mineral  aggregates 
which  it  contains  ;  the  disposition,  or  arrangement  of  these  ag- 
gregates, forming  the  great  masses  called  rocks  ;  the  relative 
position  and  nature,  of  the  rocks  themselves  ;  the  useful  substan- 
ces which  they  contain ;  the  common  or  natural  associations  of 
these  with  other  substances  ;  the  proximate  causes,  which  have, 
probably,  given  the  mineral  masses  their  present  form  and  posi- 
tion ;  and  those,  which,  operating  upon  them  still,  are  causing 
them  to  undergo  alterations,  more  or  less  considerable,  and  are 
even,  in  some  instances,  producing  changes,  which  will  ultimately 
give  them  new  forms  of  existence. 

POSITIVE    AND    SPECULATIVE    GEOLOGY. 

It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  geology  is  erected  upon  facts,  and 
not  upon  mere  speculation  ;  yet,  speculation  is  with  propriety 
admitted,  as  a  part  of  the  means  of  advancing  the  science ;  in 
some  cases  it  is  an  important  part,  but  it  is  of  no  value  if  not 
founded  upon  facts,  and  facts  must  never  be  contradicted  by  it. 

Positive  geology  is  incomparably  more  important  than  specu- 
lative, and  it  proceeds,  like  the  other  natural  sciences,  upon  a 
careful  examination  of  particulars.  From  particulars,  it  ascends 
to  generals,  and  upon  these,  builds  legitimate  conclusions.  Thus, 
there  is  a  clear  distinction  between  geological  theory  and  geolog- 
ical hypothesis.  The  former  draws  conclusions  directly  from 
facts,  and  follows  strictly  the  inductive  course.  It  has  therefore 
the  same  foundation,  as  general  physics  ;  and  its  conclusions  of- 


10  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

ten  approximate  to  demonstration.  The  latter  also  appeals  to 
facts,  but,  in.  a  manner  less  conclusive  and  it  makes  suppositions 
of  facts,  not  actually  proved  to  exist.  For  instance :  when  we 
observe,  that  vast  quantities  of  aerial  agents,  especially  of  steam, 
are  ejected  from  volcanos,  we  reason  conclusively,  that  these 
agents  are  employed  to  raise  the  lava,  and  that  they  cause  it  to 
flow  over  the  crater  or  to  burst  through  the  side  of  the  mountain  ; 
for,  we  know,  from  familiar  facts,  and  experiments,  that  these 
agents  have  power  enough  to  produce  such  an  effect ;  we  know, 
that  in  the  case  supposed,  they  are  present  in  sufficient  quanti- 
ties, and  we  are  ignorant  of  any  other  causes,  that  might  produce 
these  effects,  or  that  may  be  believed  to  exist  in  these  circum- 
stances. But,  when  we  enquire  for  the  causes  of  the  heat  that 
produces  the  steam,  and  evolves  the  other  aerial  agents,  we  are 
obliged  to  speculate.  We  may  say,  perhaps,  that  the  voltaic  or 
galvanic  powers  are  the  principal  agents,  and  we  may  even  render 
it  highly  probable,  nay,  quite  credible  ;  but,  we  cannot  prove  the 
fact,  and  therefore,  our  solution  rests  as  an  hypothesis  ;  but,  of 
that  class  of  hypotheses  which,  being  built  upon  analogous  facts, 
approximate  to  legitimate  theory. 

If  we  reason  concerning  the  cause  of  the  magnetism  of  the 
earth,  we  may  suppose,  that  there  is  a  great  mass  of  magnetic 
iron  within  the  planet ;  but,  this  is  an  hypothesis  of  a  lower  or- 
der than  the  one  just  named  ;  because,  we  have  no  analogies  to 
support  our  conclusion,  except  that  iron  can  become  magnetic 
and  that  the  mean  specific  gravity  of  the  earth  is  about  5.,  water 
being  1.;  and  we  invent  the  cause,  on  purpose  to  account  for 
the  effect.* 

Positive  geology  is  every  day  augmenting  its  already  rich  stores 
of  facts  ;  and  speculative  geology  is  building  its  conclusions  upon 
a  basis,  which  time  is  rendering  more  and  more  solid. 


*  The  beautiful  fossil  fish  found  in  marly  lime  stone,  in  Mount  Bolca,  inform  us  that 
they  were  living  and  active  beings,  just  before  those  hills  were  deposited,  and  when 
the  waters  stood  over  the  place  where  they  now  are  ;  this  is  a  pregnant  truth — but, 
if  we  say,  with  some,  that  they  were  overwhelmed  by  a  volcanic  eruption,  we  spec- 
ulate, some  would  think  plausibly,  others  fancifully. 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 


LIMITS    OF    OUR    KNOWLEDGE    OF    THE    EARTH. 

It  is  only  the  crust  of  our  earth  that  we  can  examine  ;  a  few 
thousand  feet,  or,  at  the  utmost,  a  few  miles  of  its  outer  rind* 
We  no  longer  attempt,  by  a  brilliant  excursion  of  the  imagina- 
tion, to  account  for  its  present  form  ;  poetry  and  fiction  have 
ceased  to  perform  the  work  of  philosophy  ;  those  obsolete  theo- 
ries, or  rather  hypotheses — many  of  them  adorned  by  the  elo- 
quence of  powerful  minds — which  substituted  waking  dreams  for 
the  patient  examination  of  facts,  are  no  longer  regarded,  except 
as  monuments  of  the  restless  activity  of  the  human  mind  ;  which 
is  inclined  to  repose  on  almost  any  hypothesis,  however  visiona- 
ry, rather  than  to  confess  its  weakness  and  ignorance.  Buffon 
could  believe,  that  the  earth  was  struck  off  from  the  sun,  by  the 
tail  of  a  comet,  while  it  remains  to  be  proved,  that  a  comet  has 
any  palpable  matter,  where  we  observe  that  peculiar  effulgence ; 
or  even  if  there  is,  that  the  firm  globe  of  the  sun,  would  receive 
injury  from  such  a  collision  ;  any  more  than  a  cannon  bail  would 
be  broken,  by  the  stroke  of  an  iron  rod.* 

A  great  number  of  highly  qualified  men  are  now  occupied 
in  geological  researches  ;  they  bring  to  the  investigation,  all 
requisite  science — the  habit  of  careful  induction,  and  the  indus- 
try and  patience,  which  are  demanded  ;  and  the  progress  made 
in  these  enquiries,  since  the  commencement  of  this  century,  is 
wonderful.  Districts,  provinces,  countries  and  even  continents 
are,  more  or  less,  extensively  surveyed  ;  and  this  kind  of  research, 
favored  by  the  propensity  for  travelling,  to  which  it  affords  both 
a  high  incitement  and  constant  gratification,  will,  doubtless,  con- 
tinue to  be  extended,  until  there  shall  be  no  countries  unexplored, 

*  The  geological  student  may  find  a  spirited  outline  of  the  most  prominent  geo- 
logical hypotheses  in  Cuvier's  Introduction  to  Geology  ;  they  may  be  read  as  a 
matter  of  amusement ;  but  it  will  be  easily  perceived,  that  they  bear  no  closer 
analogy  to  modern  geology,  than  the  visions  of  Alchemy  sustain  to  modern  chemis- 
try. 


1.2  'INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

except  those  from  which  the  scientific  traveller  is  debarred,  by  in- 
superable moral  or  physical  impediments. 

Geology  is,  therefore,  now  entitled  to  a  rank  among  the  phys- 
ical sciences,  and  is  entirely  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  great- 
est minds. 

In  grandeur,  it  falls  indeed  short  of  astronomy  ;  and  what 
physical  science  does  not ;  since,  astronomy  presents  to  our  op- 
tics, or  to  our  intellectual  vision,  the  "  great  frame  work"  of  the 
universe  ;  we  pass  from  the  view  of  our  own  planet  to  the  entire 
planetary  system,  of  which  our  earth  is  a  member  ;  and  from  this 
system,  to  other  and  similar  systems  ;  and  to  the  immense  system 
of  systems — of  suns  innumerable,  with  their  attendant  worlds,  ar- 
ranged and  connected,  in  perfect  harmony  ;  performing  all  their 
revolutions  without  interference,  or  irregularity,  and  illustrating 
the  power  and  wisdom  and  sustaining  energy,  of  the  omnipotent 
Creator  and  Governor.  Still,  the  structure  of  a  single  planet  is  a 
subject  of  great  interest  and  of  no  small  grandeur  ;  especially  as 
we  may  reason  from  it  analogically,  although  not  indeed  con- 
clusively, respecting  the  structure  of  other  planets.* 

MODES    OF    INVESTIGATION    AND    SOURCES    OF    OUR    KNOWLEDGE. 

Our  direct  penetration  into  the  earth,  by  mines,  the  deepest 
excavations  of  art,  has  scarcely  exceeded  three  thousand  feet  or 
a  little  more  than  half  a  mile,  not  ¥^V?  Part  °f  tne  earth's  di- 
ameter or  T¥'oo  Part  of  its  radius. 

It  might  therefore,  at  first  view  seem  that  we  can  attain  only  a 
very  slight  knowledge  of  the  internal  structure  of  the  planet,  and 
that  it  would  be  idle  to  attempt  to  reason  respecting  that  of 
which  we  can  see  so  little.  Still,  we  are  not  without  probable 
grounds  of  reasoning  correctly  upon  this  subject,  for  we  have 

*  The  only  positive  knowledge  which  we  possess  on  this  subject  is  derived  from 
the  meteoric  stones  whose  foreign  origin  cannot  be  reasonably  doubted. 

The  observations  made  by  telescopes,  upon  the  moon,  have  discovered  a  surface 
similar  to  that  of  our  earth,  but  vastly  more  mountainous  and  as  it  is  now  thought 
highly  volcanic.  See  our  author,  Appendix,  p.  386. 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS.  13 

various  sources  of  information  and  means  of  perusing  the  inter- 
nal disposition  of  our  globe ;  the  most  important  are  derived,  from 

1 .   The  obliquity  of  the  strata. 

The  strata  or  natural4  beds  of  rocks  are  found  in  all  positions, 
from  the  perfectly  vertical,  to  the  perfectly  horizontal.  Were 
they  all  horizontal,  it  is  obvious,  that  the  edges  could  come  into 
view,  only  on  the  sides  of  mountains,  in  the  banks  of  rivers,  in 
promontories,  &c.  and  in  artificial  excavations ;  and  that,  in  a 
tolerably  level  country,  we  might  travel  over  many  leagues,  and 
see  very  little  change  in  the  rock  formations. 

But  if,  as  happens  in  most  countries,  the  strata  are  inclined  to 
the  horizon,  then,  their  edges  must  of  course,  come  into  view, 
provided  their  obliquity  does  not  change,  and  provided  the  rocks 
are  not  concealed  by  their  own  ruins,  or  by  the  general  soil. 
Thus  strata,  that  in  a  given  situation  are  many  miles  below  the 
surface,  may,  and  necessarily,  must,  (under  the  limitations  above 
specified)  come  into  view,  and  crop  out,  as  it  is  technically  term- 
ed, in  some  place  or  another.  Could  we  suppose,  that  for  many 
leagues  of  surface,  measured  on  a  right  line,  the  soil  and  diluvi- 
um were  completely  removed,  from  a  series  of  rocks,  inclined 
to  the  horizon,  then,  their  edges  would  come  fully  into  view, 
and  we  could  have  no  reasonable  doubt  that  we  should  see 
an  adequate  representation  of  the  subterranean  geography,  as 
far  as  those  strata  extended  ;  and  probably  for  many  leagues — 
it  might  be  even  for  hundreds  of  miles  beneath  the  surface.  The 
same  remark  will  of  course  apply  to  the  strata  that  are  vertical, 
and  indeed  to  those  in  all  positions,  except  the  perfectly  flat ; 
and  even  then,  we  are  not  without  means  of  studying  them  in  the 
modes  already  suggested,  or,  which  will  be  immediately  indicated. 

2.  Horizontal  position  of  the  strata. 

Strictly,  this  is  a  position  parallel  to  the  general  curve  of  the 
earth's  surface,  considered  without  reference  to  its  superficial  in- 


mixv 


14  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

equalities;  those  inequalities  themselves,  that  is  the  hills  and 
mountains  being  supposed  to  have  a  similar  structure.  In  that 
case,  it  is  certain,  that  were  this  position  strictly  preserved  and 
were  there  no  perforations  and  ruptures  of  the  strata,  by  artifi- 
cial or  natural  causes,  we  should,  except  in  the  sides  of  hills  and 
mountains,  see  only  the  upper  stratum  of  rock,  and  our  knowledge 
of  the  geology  of  the  region  in  question,  would  be  confined, 
very  nearly,  to  the  visible  material  beneath  our  feet. 

We  are  not  informed  as  to  the  figure  of  the  nucleus  of  the 
earth,  but,  if  it  be  irregular  or  even  not  globular,  the  strata 
deposited  upon  its  different  sides,  or  surfaces,  may  exhibit  every 
degree  and  variety  of  obliquity  ;  and  the  stratum,  which,  in  a  giv- 
en situation,  appears  horizontal,  may  in  fact,  copy,  not  the  great 
curve  of  the  earth,  but  a  plane,  which  if  continued,  would  take 
off  a  segment  of  the  globe,  and  thus  the  edges  of  the  strata 
would,  at  their  exit  from  the  ground,  come  distinctly  into  view, 
although  the  surface  of  the  country  should  be  horizontal. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  the  earth  has  a  solid  nucleus  or  not. 
If  it  has,  and  this  nucleus  is  any  thing  but  a  sphere  or  a  spheroid- 
al figure,  then  the  various  faces  which  it  would  present,  might 
cause  the  superposited  strata  to  assume  every  position  from  flat 
to  vertical,  and  there  would  be  no  occasion  to  admit  that  strata, 
originally  arranged  in  one  position,  had  been  by  force,  elevated 
into  another. 

If  we  admit  a  nucleus  having  plane  faces,  or  faces  not  sphe- 
roidal, and  allow  that  the  crust  of  the  globe  has  been  accu- 
mulated around  the  nucleus,  then  it  would  be  possible,  that 
planes  of  stratification  might  extend  through  a  large  portion 
of  the  planet,  and  might  even  jut  out  on  opposite  sides.  If  this 
suggestion  were  well  founded,  then  the  view  of  the  crust  might 
present  a  fair  specimen  of  the  interior,  or  at  least  to  a  consider- 
able extent.  The  nucleus  would  however,  by  the  supposition, 
be  covered  by  the  superimposed  masses,  which  might,  or  might 
not  correspond  with  it  in  their  nature. 

If  there  be  no  mistake  in  the  conclusions  of  the  British  and 
French  philosophers  as  to  the  high  mean  specific  gravity  of  the 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS.  15 

earth,  the  planet  is,  on  an  average,  at  least  twice  as  heavy  as  the 
most  common  rocks  and  stones  with  which  we  are  acquainted. 

Does  this  discovery  imply  a  prevalence  of  metals  in  the  interi- 
or of  the  earth  ?  Is  the  nucleus  iron,  or  at  least  is  iron  diffused 
in  great  abundance  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  and  does  this  ac- 
count for  the  magnetism  of  the  globe,  although  the  magnetism  of 
iron  itself  is  still  to  be  accounted  for  ?  Or  does  some  other  metal 
or  do  some  other  metals,  of  considerable  specific  gravity,  prevail 
in  the  constitution  of  the  earth  ?  If  there  were  known  to  be  a 
nucleus  of  silver,  gold  or  platina,  there  would  soon  be  found  ad- 
venturers hardy  enough  to  attempt  even  the  centre. 

Where  we  are  deficient  in  positive  knowledge,  we  are  at  liberty 
to  make  suppositions,  provided  they  are  consistent  with  the 
known  constitution  of  things. 

It  is  then  clearly  possible,  that  matter,  of  the  same  kind  as  that 
which  forms  the  rocky  strata,. on  the  surface,  may  exist  below,  in 
a  degree  of  condensation,  sufficient  to  account  for  the  high  spe- 
cific gravity  of  the  earth.  We  are  not  without  examples  in  nat- 
ural substances. 

Carbon,  in  diamond,  is  three  or  four  times  as  heavy  as  in  the 
bitumens,  and  six  or  eight  times  as  heavy  as  in  charcoal  ;  alumine 
in  sapphire  sustains  a  similar  relation  to  the  alumine  of  clays, 
and  so  does  magnesia  in  the  state  of  pulverulent  native  carbonat, 
or  mountain  cork,  to  magnesia  in  the  boracite,  or  in  the  chryso- 
lite, and  silex  in  swimming  flint,  (quartz  nectique)  and  in  rock 
crystal,  are  in  a  similar  situation. 

It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  the  very  minerals  which  we  see  on 
the  surface,  may,  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  have  a  double  spe- 
cific gravity. 

It  is  a  splendid  conception,  built  upon  the  discoveries  of  Sir  H. 
Davy  and  Prof.  Berzelius,  that  the  metals  of  the  earths,  and  not 
merely  the  earths  themselves  may  exist  in  the  interior,  and  thus 
the  nucleus  of  the  planet  may  be  principally  a  mass  of  metals, 
as  its  crust  certainly  is  of  metallic  oxids. 

All  these  views  tend  to  shew,  that  it  is  possible,  to  reconcile 
the  apparently  contradictory  specific  gravity  of  the  surface  and  of 


16  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

the  entire  mass  of  the  earth  ;  and,  were  this  the  proper  occasion? 
it  might  be  easily  proved,  that  these  views  are  very  interesting  to 
general  physics,  and  particularly  to  geology,  in  enabling  us  to 
understand  the  phenomena  of  earthquakes  and  volcanos, 

But,  for  want  of  positive  information  as  to  the  state  of  facts,  it  is 
impossible  to  reason  conclusively  on  this  subject,  and  the  recent 
researches  of  Cordier  tending  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  state  of 
igneous  fusion  in  the  interior  of  the  earth  and  at  no  very  profound 
depth,  must,  if  confirmed,  very  materially  influence  our  opinions. 
But  philosophers  will  be  slow  to  admit  such  appalling  conclu- 
sions from  the  premises  hitherto  presented. 

3.  Mines. 

The  excavations  made  in  mining  are  the  greatest  with  which 
we  are  acquainted.  The  deepest  mine  in  the  world,  that  of  Trut- 
tenberg  in  Bohemia,  penetrates  three  thousand  feet  into  the  earth. 
In  all  mines,  the  strata  are,  of  course,  more  or  less  perforated  and 
broken,  so  that  we  obtain  the  most  satisfactory  information — 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  rocks  and  their  disposition.  Few  of  the 
mines  of  England  are  in  perpendicular  descent,  deeper  than 
twelve  hundred  feet  (Dolgoath  in  Cornwall)  and  none  in  the  Uni- 
ted States  exceed  three  or  four  hundred,  (Richmond  coal  mines.) 

4.  Wells. 

The  evidence  afforded  by  wells  is  of  the  same  nature.  The 
depth  attained  rarely  equals  one  hundred  feet,  but  in  some  in- 
stances it  extends  to  two  hundred,  three  hundred,  four  hundred, 
&c.  as  at  Carisbrooke  castle  in  the  isle  of  Wight,  on  the  plain  or 
valley  of  London,  &c.  (Conybeare  and  Philips.) 

5.  Boring  for  saltwater ,  salt  mines,  coal,  fyc. 

This  is  an  operation  of  the  same  kind,  and  affords,  as  regards 
the  rocks,  similar  evidence,  although  less  distinct ;  because  the 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS.  17 

materials  are  brought  up,  in  the  state  of  powder,  or  at  least  of  frag- 
ments, and  a  very  imperfect  idea  is  thus  obtained  of  their  original 
appearance ;  sufficient  however  to  enable  us  to  decide  on  their 
nature.  These  operations  are  often  carried  on  to  the  depth  of 
several  hundred  feet. 

6.  Roads,  canals,*  tunnels. 

The  two  first  rarely  penetrate  to  any  great  depth,  but  some* 
times  there  are  deep  cuts  through  diluvium,  and  even  through 
solid  rocks.  The  former  is  seen,  very  strikingly,  on  the  Welland 
Canal,  in  Upper  Canada  ;  the  cut  through  the  diluvium  being, 
in  some  places,  more  than  fifty  feet,  in  a  stiff  tenaceous  clay, 
and  the  latter  circumstance  is  particularly  remarkable  at  Lock- 
port  on  the  Erie  Canal,  where  for  two  miles  or  more,  a  very  solid, 
subcrystaline  limestone  has  been  excavated  by  blasting  in  many 
places  to  the  depth  of  thirty  feet,  disclosing  not  only  the  nature  of 
the  rock,  but  many  beautiful  imbedded  minerals. 

Tunnels  are  not  numerous.  Every  one  has  heard  of  those  of 
the  Duke  of  Bridgewater,  on  the  Canal  leading  from  Liverpool  to 
Manchester,!  and  of  that  now  making  under  the  Thames  to  serve 
as  a  substitute  for  a  bridge. 

It  appears  that  they  were  not  unknown  to  the  ancients.  From 
the  Stadium  near  Athens,  situated  in  a  natural  defile,  the  van- 
quished charioteers  retired  through  a  tunnel  which  perforated  a 
neighboring  hill,  and  thus  those  who  had  failed  of  victory 
were  screened  from  the  sneers  and  insults  of  the  populace.]:  These 
and  all  other  excavations  into  the  earth  add  to  our  means  of  geo- 
logical information. 

*The  French,  during  their  celebrated  expedition  to  Egypt,  under  Bonaparte,  tra- 
ced and  described  the  ancient  and  magnificent  canal  connecting  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Red  Sea,  but  which  from  the  ignorance  of  locks  in  ancient  times  could  be 
navigated  only  when  the  waters  were  high,  and  was  therefore  nearly  useless. 

I  That  stupendous  work  of  art,  the  canal  tunnel,  under  Standedge,  between  Hud- 
dersfield  and  Manchester,  extends  under  ground  upward  of  three  miles,  and  is  two 
hundred  and  twenty  yards  below  the  surface.  The  length  of  the  voyage  through 
the  tunnel  and  back  again  is  six  miles  and  a  half.— English  Newspaper. 

t  Dr.  Howe's  personal  communications,  Aug.  11,  1828. 

3 


18  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

7.  Rivers  and  other  water  courses. 

From  the  humblest  brook,  that  transports  the  gravel  and  sand 
along  its  current,  to  those  stupendous  rivers  which  force  their 
way  through  mountain  defiles,  and  appear  as  if  they  had  burst  the 
barriers  that  were  once  opposed  to  them,  we  derive  geological 
instruction.  The  ruins  which,  in  the  form  of  sand  and  gravel  and 
pebbles  and  sometimes  even  bowlder  stones,  they  bear  along  in 
their  course,  or  vex  with  incessant  friction,  till  their  angles  are 
rounded  or  obliterated,  afford  us  valuable  information  ;  and  the 
sections  of  banks  of  gravel  or  of  rocky  strata  which  the  waters 
expose,  impart  to  us  hints  which  we  may  turn  to  great  account. 

In  many  places,  the  rivers  appear  to  have  formerly  flowed  at  a 
higher  level,  than  at  present,  or  to  be  the  remnants  of  lakes  whose 
barriers  time  has  levelled  or  broken  ;  and  it  is  no  uncommon  cir- 
cumstance to  find  water-worn  ledges  of  rocks  at  elevations  higher 
than  any  place  where  waters  can  flow  at  the  present  time.  This 
is  undeniably  the  fact  in  the  vicinity  of  Bellows  falls  on  Connecti- 
cut River,  especially  two  or  three  miles  below  the  falls,  on  the  east- 
ern side  ;  here  the  primitive  rocks  shew  the  same  water-rounded 
angles,  furrowed  lines  and  even  pot  holes,  evidently,  formed  and 
polished  by  incessant  friction,  as  are  exhibited  at  the  falls  them- 
selves, where  these  operations  are  now  incessantly  going  forward. 
Similar  facts  are  observable  in  the  transition  limestone  near  the 
head  of  lake  George,  at  a  considerable  elevation  above  the  lake, 
in  ledges  over  which  no  water  now  flows  but  that  of  the  atmos- 
phere ;  "  the  angles  are  rounded  and  smoothed  and  there  are  nu- 
merous holes  worn  into  the  solid  rock,  sometimes  shallow  and  ir- 
regular, but  frequently  deep  and  cylindrical,  and  bearing  a  very  ex- 
act resemblance  to  those  which  are  common  in  the  ledges,  upon 
which  cataracts  fall,  and  appearing  to  have  been  produced  by  the 
same  cause,  namely,  the  wearing  agency  of  water,  aided  by  small 
stones  which  it  impels  in  incessant  whirling  revolutions."* 

The  passage  of  the  Shenandoah  through  the  blue  ridge — of 
the  Connecticut  just  below  Middletown,  through  the  Haddam 

*  American  Journal,  Vol.  IV.  p.  44. 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS.  19 

hills,  and  of  the  river  described  by  Lewis  and  Clark  through  the 
Rocky  mountains,  are  a  few  among  innumerable  examples  of  this 
kind.  It  is  very  immaterial  for  geological  purposes,  whether  the 
rivers  have  burst  their  barriers,  or  merely  uncovered  the  rocks  so 
that  their  characters  can  be  observed  ;  for,  in  either  case  they 
contribute  to  the  mass  of  geological  evidence.* 

8.   Valleys  and  defiles. 

These  are  often  deep  cut  and  abrupt  and  of  great  extent,  ex- 
posing the  stratification  on  the  sides  of  hills  and  mountains.  The 
structure  must  in  this  manner,  be  more  or  less  revealed,  in  every 
mountainous  country,  except  so  far  as  the  sides  are  covered  with 
soil  and  ruins.  As  a  large  part  of  the  earth  is  mountainous,  pro- 
vision is  thus  made  on  a  great  scale  for  judging  of  the  interior  of 
the  planet. 

9.  Precipices,  cliffs,  promontories  and  abrupt  banks. 

The  shores  of  the  seas  and  of  the  great  lakes  abound  with  such 
exhibitions,  and  all  countries  except  those  that  are  very  low  pre- 
sent them  in  great  frequency.  Many  of  them  are  inaccessible 
except  in  boats  from  the  water  side,  but  however  viewed,  they 
exhibit  the  stratification  and  structure  more  or  less  distinctly. 

10.  Landslips,  Slides  and  Avulsions. 

The  peaceful  dweller  in  the  beautiful  Isle  of  Wight,  in  the 
English  channel,  not  unfrequently,  sees  the  high  chalky  cliffs  of 
that  coast,  that  have  been  undermined  by  the  sea,  totter  to  their 


*  Although  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  rivers  have  generally  formed  their  own 
beds,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  currents  of  water  do  often  increase  the  depth 
and  alter  the  form  of  their  channels.  The  Genessee  River  and  the  Niagara  River 
afford  fine  examples  of  the  exhibition  of  stratification  of  river  banks,  by  the  wearing 
effects  of  water.  The  banks  of  these  two  rivers  are  often  precipitous  and  of  seve- 
ral hundred  feet  in  elevation,  giving- very  perfect  sections  of  the  strata. 


20  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

fall,  till  they  come  thundering  down  ;  and  even  at  some  distance 
from  the  sea,  they  occasionally  slide  or  slip  from  their  foundations, 
covering  the  plains  below  with  ruins. 

The  mountaineers  of  the  Alps  witness  still  more  stupendous  ca- 
tastrophes. Large  mountain  masses,  and  even  considerable  por- 
tions of  mountains,  fall  into  the  valleys  and  plains,  and  choke 
them  up,  or  fill  the  bosom  of  lakes,  spreading  desolation  through 
villages — burying  their  inhabitants  in  the  wreck,  or  sweeping 
them  away  by  the  overflowing  of  the  waters. 

Even  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont,  and  the  White  Moun- 
tains of  New  Hampshire,  have  been  the  scenes  of  similar  catas- 
trophes, and  the  Notch  in  the  White  Mountains,  will  long  record 
the  desolations  of  July,  1826.* 


*The  slides  in  the  White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  and  the  Green  Moun- 
tains of  Vermont,  have  been  recently  very  remarkable.  (See  Am.  Journal,  Vol.  XV. 
Art.  II.)  There  is  a  grand  defile  or  pass  in  the  White  Mountains,  called  the  Notch. 
The  portion  which  is  the  grandest,  is  about  five  or  six  miles  in  length ;  it  is  composed 
of  a  double  barrier  of  mountains,  rising  very  abruptly  from  both  sides  of  the  wild 
roaring  river  Saco,  which  frequently  washes  the  feet  of  both  barriers;  and  some- 
times there  is  not  room  for  a  single  carriage  to  pass  between  the  stream  and  the 
mountains ;  but  the  road  is  cut  into  the  mountain  itself.  This  double  barrier,  rises 
on  each  side,  to  the  height  of  nearly  half  a  mile  in  perpendicular  altitude,  often  ex- 
ceeding this  height ;  and  it  is  capped,  here  and  there,  by  castellated  turrets  of  rocks, 
standing  high  above  the  continued  ridges ;  these  are  not  straight,  but  are  formed  into 
numerous  zigzag  turns,  which  frequently  cut  off  the  view,  and  seem  to  imprison  the 
observer  in  a  vast,  gloomy  gulf. 

The  sides  of  these  mountains  are  deeply  furrowed  and  scarred,  by  the  tremendous 
effects  of  the  memorable  deluge  of  August  28th,  1826,  which,  on  the  night  succeed- 
ing that  day,  destroyed,  in  a  moment,  the  Willey  family,  nine  in  number,  and  left 
not  one  to  tell  their  story.  They  occupied  a  lonely  house  in  the  wildest  part  of  the 
Notch,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains;  it  was  a  resting  place  for  travellers.  For  two 
seasons  before,  the  mountains  had  been  very  dry,  and  on  the  morning  of  Aug.  28th, 
it  commenced  raining  very  hard,  with  strong  tempestuous  wind ;  the  storm  lasted 
through  that  day  and  the  succeeding  night,  and  when  it  ceased,  the  road  was  found 
obstructed  by  innumerable  avalanches  of  mountain  ruins,  which  rendered  it  impossi- 
ble to  pass,  except  on  foot.  The  first  person  who  came  to  the  Willey  house,  found 
it  empty  of  its  inhabitants,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  the  mangled  bodies  of 
seven  out  of  nine,  were  discovered  a  short  distance  below,  buried  beneath  the 
drift  wood  and  mountain  ruins,  on  the  bank  ot  the  Saco,  or  rather  in  the  midst  of 
ivhat  was  for  the  time,  a  vast  raging  torrent,  uniting  one  mountain  barrier  to  the 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS.  21 

It  is  obvious  therefore,  that  our  means  of  perusing  the  struc- 
ture of  the  interior  of  the  earth  are  not  so  scanty,  or  so  imperfect, 
as  might  at  first  view  appear. 

This  at  least  may  be  said  with  truth,  that,  although  we  cannot 
prove  what  is  the  constitution  of  the  earth  one  thousand,  or  even 
one  hundred  miles  from  its  surface,  we  have  means  in  our  power 
of  deciding  upon  the  nature  of  the  crust.  Whether  in  one  quarter 
of  the  world  or  in  another,  we  ascend  the  loftiest  mountains,  and 
examine  the  awful  peaks  on  which  the  sunbeams  shine,  first  and 
last,  as  the  sun  rises  and  sets,  and  on  which  the  storms  of  ages 
have  spent  their  fury ;  or  whether  we  descend  into  the  deepest 
mines,  and  observe  the  strata  uncovered,  for  the  first  time,  since 
their  formation ;  in  whatever  country  ;  under  whatever  circum- 
stances, we  examine  the  earth,  we  are  led  to  the  important  con- 


other.    The  effects  of  the  torrents,  which  on  that  occasion  descended  from  the 
mountains,  now  form  a  most  conspicuous  and  interesting  feature  in  the  scenery. 

The  avalanches  were  very  numerous  ;  they  were  not,  however,  ruptures  of  the 
main  foundation  rock  of  the  mountain,  but  slides,  from  very  steep  declivities  ;  be- 
ginning, in  many  instances,  at  the  very  mountain  top,  and  carrying  down,  in  one 
promiscuous  and  frightful  ruin,  shrubs  and  forests,  and  the  earth  which  sustained 
them ;  stones  and  rocks  innumerable,  and  many  of  great  size,  such  as  would  fill, 
each,  a  common  apartment :  the  slide  took  every  thing  with  it,  down  to  the  solid 
mountain  rock,  and  being  produced  by  torrents  of  water,  which  appear  to  have  burst, 
like  water  spouts  upon  the  mountains,  after  they  had  been  thoroughly  soaked  with 
heavy  rains,  thus  loosening  all  the  materials  that  were  not  solid,  and  the  trees  push- 
ed and  wrung  by  fierce  winds,  acted  as  so  many  levers,  and  prepared  every  thing 
for  the  awful  catastrophe.  No  tradition  existed  of  any  slide  in  former  times,  and 
such  as  are  now  discovered  to  have  anciently  happened,  had  been  completely  veiled 
by  forest  growth  and  shrubs.  At  length,  on  the  28th  of  June,  two  months  before 
the  painful  event,  there  was  an  avalanche,  not  far  from  the  Willey  house,  which  so  far 
alarmed  the  family,  that  they  erected  an  encampment  a  little  distance  from  their 
dwelling,  intending  it  as  a  place  of  refuge.  On  the  fatal  night,  it  was  impenetrably 
dark,  and  frightfully  tempestuous  ;  the  solitary  family  had  retired  to  rest,  in  their 
humble  dwelling,  six  miles  from  the  nearest  human  creature.  The  avalanches  de- 
scended in  every  part  of  the  gulf,  for  a  distance  of  two  miles ;  and  a  very  heavy  one 
began  on  the  mountain  top,  immediately  above  the  house,  and  took  its  course  in  a  direct 
line  towards  it;  the  sweeping  torrent,  a  river  from  the  clouds,  and  a  river  full  of 
earth,  stones,  trees,  and  rocks,  rushed  to  the  house,  and  marvellously  divided  within 
six  feet  of  it,  and  just  behind  it,  and  passed  on  either  side,  sweeping  away  the  stable 
and  horses,  and  completely  encircling  the  dwelling,  but  leaving  it  untouched.  At 


22  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

elusion,  that  the  great  features  are  drawn  upon  the  same  plan, 
and  that  similar  laws  have  governed  the  whole  series  of  forma- 
tions. 

******* 

Fruits  or  results  of  the  observations  made  on  the  structure  of 
the  crust,  in  consequence  of  the  use  of  all  the  means  in  our 
power. 

The  earth  is  not  (as  ignorant  persons  usually  suppose)  rudis 
indigestaque  moles,  a  mere  rude  and  unarranged  heap  of  rocks, 
and  minerals,  grouped  together  without  order,  without  plan,  and 
without  a  possibility  of  being  rationally  investigated. 

Order,  so  distinctly  observed  in  the  mechanism  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  in  the  stellary  and  planetary  systems ;  in  the  admirable 

this  time,  it  is  supposed  the  family  issued  from  their  door,  and  were  swept  away  by 
the  torrent. 

Had  they  remained,  they  would  have  been  entirely  safe.  They  probably  did  re- 
main amidst  the  war  of  wind  and  rain  and  mountain  torrents,  and  the  tremendous 
crash  of  the  forests — earth  and  rocks,  which  for  miles  around  them  were  rushing 
down  in  one  wide  scene  of  desolation,  and  with  an  astounding  noise  and  concussion, 
of  which,  we  can  form  no  adequate  conception;  until  the  evident  and  near  approach 
of  the  ruin  immediately  behind  the  house,  left  them,  apparently,  no  alternative,  but 
to  fly  from  instant  death.  Even  now  (May  20,  1828,)  almost  two  years  after  the 
event,  there  is  a  great  rampart  of  earth — stones — rocks  and  trees,  piled  up  within 
five  feet  of  the  house,  and  behind  it  and  making  a  circuit  round  it,  as  if  repelled  by 
an  invisible  power.  But  the  little  green  in  front,  and  east  of  the  house  was  undis- 
turbed, and  a  flock  of  sheep,  (a  part  of  the  possessions  of  the  family)  rested  on  this 
small  spot  of  ground  and  were  found  there  the  next  morning  in  safety — although 
the  torrent  which  has  been  mentioned  as  dividing  just  above  the  house,  and  forming 
a  curve  on  both  sides,  had  swept  completely  around  them,  and  again  united  below, 
and  covered  the  meadows  and  orchard  with  ruins,  which  remain  there  to  this  hour. 
This  catastrophe  presents  a  very  striking  example  of  sudden  diluvial  action,  and  en- 
ables one  to  form  some  feeble  conception  of  the  universal  effects  of  the  vindictive 
deluge  which  once  ravaged  every  plain  and  defile,  and  swept  over  every  mountain. 
In  the  present  instance,  there  was  not  one  avalanche  only,  but  there  were  many. 
The  most  extensive  single  one,  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  barrier  which  forms  the 
northern  boundary  of  the  Notch.  It  is  described  as  having  slid,  in  the  whole,  three 
miles — with  an  average  breadth  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  ;  it  overwhelmed  a  bridge,  and 
filled  a  river  course,  turning  the  stream,  and  now  presents  an  unparalleled  mass  of 
ruins.  There  are  places  on  the  declivities  of  the  mountains  in  the  Notch,  where 
acres  of  the  steep  sides  were  swept  bare  of  their  forests,  and  of  every  moveable 
thing,  and  the  naked  rock  is  now  exposed  to  view. 


INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS.  23 

equilibrium  of  projection  and  gravitation ;  of  cohesion  and  ex- 
pansion ;  of  cohesion  and  chemical  affinity ;  in  the  beautiful 
structure  and  exact  economy  of  animals  and  vegetables ;  and  in 
the  still  more  wonderful  phenomena  of  mind,  does  not  end  there : 
it  pervades  all  the  other  works  of  God ;  and  in  this  rude,  uncon- 
scious earth,  is  not  less  capable  of  proof,  (although  that  proof  is 
less  obvious)  than  in  the  other  departments  of  his  universal  do- 
minion. 

Still,  while  this  regularity  is  thus  manifest,  and  is  the  prevailing 
character,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  the  earth  exhibits,  in  eve- 
ry country,  decisive  proofs  of  violence,  derangement  and  disloca- 
tion of  strata  ;  indicating  the  operation  of  various  catastrophes. 
For  example,  in  mines,  strata  are  found,  whose  continuity  is  bro- 


In  the  greater  number  of  instances  however,  the  avalanches  began  almost  at  the 
mountain  top,  or  high  upon  its  slope.  The  excavation  commenced,  generally,  as 
soon  as  there  was  any  thing  moveable — in  a  trench  of  a  few  yards  in  depth,  and  of 
a  few  rods  in  width,  and  descended  down  the  mountains — widening  and  deepening — 
till  it  became  a  great  chasm,  like  a  vast  irregular  hollow  cone,  with  its  apex  near  the 
mountain  top,  and  its  base  as  its  foot,  and  there  spread  out  into  a  wide  and  deep 
mass  of  ruins,  of  transported  earth,  gravel  stones,  rocks  and  forest  trees. — Letter  of 
the  Editor,  written  on  the  spot,  May  20, 1828. 

A  party  of  gentlemen  who  assended  Mount  Washington,  the  next  day  after  the 
the  storm,  counted  thirty  slides  on  the  western  side  of  the  mountain.  They  began  near 
the  line  where  the  soil  and  vegetation  terminate,  and  growing  wider  as  they  decen- 
ded,  were  estimated  to  contain  more  than  a  hundred  acres.  These  were  all  on  the 
western  side  of  the  mountains.  They  were  composed  of  the  whole  surface  of  the 
earth  with  all  its  growth  of  woods,  and  its  loose  rocks,  to  the  depth  of  fifteen,  twenty, 
and  thirty  feet.  And  wherever  the  slides  of  the  two  projecting  mountains  met  for- 
ming a  vast  ravine,  the  depth  was  still  greater.  In  some  places  the  road  was  excava- 
ted to  the  depth  of  fifteen  and  twenty  feet ;  and  in  others  it  was  covered  with  earth, 
and  rocks,  and  trees,  to  as  great  a  height.  In  the  Notch  and  along  the  deep 
defile  below  it,  for  a  mile  and  a  half,  to  the  Notch  House,  and  as  far  as  could  be  seen 
beyond  it,  no  appearance  of  the  road,  except  in  one  place  for  two  or  three  rods,  could 
be  discovered.  The  steep  sides  of  the  mountain,  first  on  one  hand,  then  on  the  oth- 
er, and  then  on  both,  had  slid  down  into  this  narrow  passage,  and  formed  a  continu- 
ed mass  from  one  end  to  the  other. — Letter  of  Rev.  Carlos  Wilcox. 


The  account  of  the  slides  in  the  Green  Mountains  will  be  quoted  in  connexion  with 
the  notice  of  diluvial  action,  in  the  latter  part  of  this  sketch. 


24  INTRODUCTORY  VIEWS. 

ken ; — suddenly,  at  a  particular  depth,  a  certain  rock,  which  is 
observed,  on  one  side  of  a  shaft  or  fissure,  disappears  on  the  oth- 
er, and  some  different  rock  comes  in  its  place ;  yet  the  first  rock 
may  be  found  again,  either  above  or  below  the  place  where  it 
disappeared,  and  with  it  all  the  attendant  series  of  rocks,  which 
in  like  manner  were  dislocated. 

Again,  a  certain  series  of  rocks  may  be  cut  across,  by  a  differ- 
ent species  of  rock,  which  shall  completely  separate  all  the  suc- 
cessive strata,  and  yet  on  both  sides  they  may  be  found  re-appear- 
ing either  at  the  same  elevation,  or  at  a  different  one.  The  mat- 
ter which  fills  the  fissure  is  technically  called  a  dyke. 

Again,  strata  are  sometimes  found  at  particular  places  tor- 
tuous or  winding,  or  angular  ;  although  they  may,  in  general,  be 
regular,  thus  indicating,  as  many  suppose,  the  application  of 
force  to  them,  and  their  disturbance  by  a  mechanical  cause. 
Notwithstanding  these  and  other  similar  irregularities, 

A  general  regularity  of  arrangement  has  been  observed  in  the 
structure  of  the  globe. 

The  great  mass  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  probably  of  its 
entire  solidity,  is,  in  every  country  made  up  of  rocks  which  have 
the  following  characteristics. 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

I.  The  most  important  fundamental  rocks  of  our  globe  are 
composed,  in  general,  of  crystaline  materials,  bearing  every  ap- 
pearance of  having  been  deposited,  from  a  state  of  prevailing  re- 
pose, and  chiefly  by  the  exertion  of  chemical  affinities  ;  they  are 
made  up  principally  of  imperfect  and  confused  crystals,  or  of 
parts,  having  more  or  less  of  a  crystaline  structure,  adjusted  to 
each  other,  either  confusedly  or  by  salient  and  re-entering  angles, 
so  as  to  form  a  mass  of  continuous  matter  ;  furnished  howevert 
sometimes  with  cavities,  which  are  occasionally  lined  with  large 
and  beautiful  crystals.  Every  thing  in  the  appearance  of  these 
rocks  implies  a  previous  state  of  chemical  mobility,  (not  of 
mechanical  suspension)  and  the  only  powers  with  which  we  are 
acquainted,  that  are  at  all  equal  to  the  effect,  are  water  and 
fire,  aided  by  various  saline,  alkaline,  acid,  and  other  energetic 
chemical  agents,  which,  in  large  quantities,  we  now  find  actually 
entering  into  the  constitution  of  these  rocks,  and  of  other  terrestri- 
al masses,  and  which  were  therefore  originally  provided  in  the 
grand  store-house  of  created  materials. 

Few  of  those  who  would  employ  fire  to  form  the  primitive,  as 
well  as  the  volcanic  and  trap  rocks,  go  so  far,  as  to  exclude  the 
operation  of  water,  or  of  chemical  agents,  of  which  water  may 
have  been  the  basis  and  vehicle.  Indeed,  it  is  generally  agreed, 
that,  judging  from  the  appearances  of  things,  we  must  conclude, 
that  the  earth  was  originally,  and  for  a  long  time,  submerged, 
and  that  its  crust  at  least,  has  been  in  a  soft  and  impressible  state, 
if  not  partially  or  wholly  in  solution. 

Geology  declares,  that  the  original,  or  at  least  early  state  of  the 
surface  of  the  planet,  was  that  of  a  watery  abyss ;  and  the  book  of 
Genesis,  in  the  concise  account  which  is  there  exhibited  of  the 
origin  of  things,  reveals  the  same  fact,  as  well  as  the  recession 
of  the  waters,  by  which  the  dry  land  was  made  to  appear. 

4 


1 7  711 


26  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

We  may  therefore  take  it  for  granted,  that  the  aqueous  abyss 
preceded  the  habitable  condition  of  the  earth,  and  we  are  at 
liberty  to  reason  upon  its  probable  constitution  and  possible 
effects. 

It  was  evidently  a  fluid  of  very  different  properties  from  mere 
water.  It  doubtless  contained  all  the  chemical  agents,  not  only 
that  are  soluble  in  water,  but  also  that  are  soluble  in  a  compound 
fluid,  consisting  of  water,  and  of  other  agents  still  more  active. 
The  acids  alone  would  give  it  great  solvent  powers,  particularly 
in  relation  to  the  alkalies — the  metallic  oxides,  and  several  of  the 
earths ;  the  alkalies  alone  would  impart  a  similar  efficiency,  es- 
pecially with  respect  to  silex,  which  is  not  readily  soluble  in  any 
acid  except  one  ;  acids  may  have  prevailed  at  one  time,  and  al- 
kalies at  another ;  and  even  if  acids  and  alkalies,  and  acids  and 
earths,  and  acids  and  metallic  oxides,  had  been  present  at  the 
same  time,  and  had  mutually  combined,  so  as  to  form  saline  com- 
pounds, these  compounds,  as  far  as  they  remained  in  solution, 
would  impart  to  the  fluid  peculiar  and  increased  solvent  powers ; 
and  those  compounds  which,  from  their  insolubility,  were  precipi- 
tated, would  be  of  course  removed,  and  would  not  be  in  the  way 
to  impede  other  agencies.  In  the  constitution  of  mineral  bodies, 
we  find  the  greater  part  of  the  most  active  chemical  agents ;  the 
powerful  acids,  the  sulphuric,  the  muriatic,  the  nitric,  the  phos- 
phoric and  the  fluoric  ;  and  the  carbonic,  although  not  powerful, 
is  abundant.  The  alkali  soda  exists  in  vast  abundance,  and  of- 
ten combined  with  no  other  acid  than  the  carbonic  ;  while  po- 
tassa,  as  well  as  soda,  is  found  in  combination  with  other  princi- 
ples in  a  great  many  minerals,  and  lithia  in  several.  The  alkalies 
are  largely,  and  the  alkaline  earths  are  considerably  soluble  in 
water ;  all  the  earths  are  easily  soluble  in  acids,  except  silex,  and 
even  this  is  powerfully  attacked  by  fluoric  acid,  and,  under  certain 
circumstances,  is  not  unaffected  by  some  other  acids.  All  the  me- 
tallic oxides  are  soluble, either  in  acids  or  alkalies;  the  metals  com- 
bine readily  with  chlorine;  carbon  and  the  other  combustibles  be- 
come soluble  by  combination  with  each  other,  and  with  oxigen, 
or  chlorine,  or  iodine  ;  and  we  may  reasonably  presume,  that  as 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  27 

these  bodies  came  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  they  were  in  a 
condition  to  act  with  intense  energy,  and  that  innumerable  solu- 
tions, decompositions  and  precipitations,  took  place  at  a  period 
when  elementary  action  had  full  play,  and  the  great  agents, 
encountering  each  other  at  every  turn,  gradually  developed 
the  new  order  of  things.  It  is  of  course  difficult  to  say,  pre- 
cisely what  was  the  condition,  and  what  were  the  qualities  of 
that  early  ocean,  that  primitive  abyss,  whose  existence  and 
sway  it  is  impossible  to  deny ;  for  while  decisive  facts  declare 
it  to  the  mere  philosopher,  revelation  unfolds  it  to  the  believer, 
and  both  conspire  to  establish  the  truth  in  the  minds  of  that 
large  and  respectable  class  of  individuals,  who  combine  both 
these  characters  in  one. 

It  appears  then  that  the  solubility  of  all  the  existing  materials 
that  form  the  crust  of  the  globe ;  their  solubility  either  in  their 
elementary  forms,  or  in  their  proximate  or  complex  combina- 
tions, is  a  truth  clearly  demonstrable,  and  actually  demonstrated  ; 
and  that  the  only  serious  difficulty  is  found,  in  attributing  to  the 
quantity  of  waters  that  now  exist,  within  our  knowledge,  sufficient 
power  to  suspend  all  the  materials  of  those  rocks,  that  bear  marks 
of  deposition  from  a  state  of  chemical  solution. 

On  this  point,  perhaps  nothing  satisfactory  can  be  said ;  but 
we  may  ask,  who  knows  what  were  the  depth  and  the  quantity  of 
the  waters  of  the  primitive  abyss  ;  how  much  water  might  (as 
the  formations  were  going  on)  have  been  exhaled,  even  to 
other  regions ;  how  much  might  have  been  decomposed  to 
afford  the  noble,  and  almost  universally  diffused  elements,  of  this 
fluid,  to  the  various  nascent  bodie^,  into  whose  constitution  oxi- 
gen  and  hydrogen  were  destined  to  enter  ;  and  how  much  might 
have  been  received  into  cavities*  in  the  earth,  to  await  a  future 
call,  to  deluge  the  surface  anew. 


*  We  may  have  occasion  to  mention  again  the  idea  of  cavities  in  the  earth,  a 
supposition  which  some  may  think  is  excluded,  by  its  high  specific  gravity. 
There  is,  however,  no  incompatibility  in  the  two  opinions.  The  amount  of 
water  requisite  to  cover,  half  a  mile  deep,  all  the  existing  mountains,  would  occupy 


28  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  quartz,  feldspar,  and  mica, 
the  minerals  which  form  the  greater  part  of  the  three  most  im- 
portant primitive  rocks,  namely,  granite,  gneiss,  and  mica  slate, 
are  composed  mainly  of  silex  and  alumine.  Now  the  silex,  espe- 
cially in  a  state  of  minute  division,  is  entirely  and  readily  soluble 
in  the  fixed  alkalies,  and  so  is  alumine,  with  even  greater  facility  : 
alumine  is  also  very  readily  soluble  in  acids  ;  silex  is  soluble  in  flu- 
oric acid,  and  can  become  even  gaseous  in  that  acid,  and,  if  mi- 
nutely divided,  it  is  soluble  in  some  other  acids.  Modern  analy- 
sis has  discovered  notable  quantities  of  potash  and  soda  in  both 
feldspar  and  mica ;  and  fluoric  acid  in  the  latter,  so  that  it  is 
proved  that  the  necessary  solvents  were  actually  present  at  the 
time  of  the  formation  of  these  minerals,  and  therefore  entered 
into  their  constitution.  Alkali  exists  elsewhere  also,  in  sufficient 
abundance  for  the  solution  of  silex  and  alumine  ;  for  that  portion 
of  alkali,  which  is  now  in  solid  combination  in  the  minerals, 
that  enter  into  the  constitution  of  the  primitive  rocks,  would 
have  done  but  little  towards  the  solution  of  the  earths  in  ques- 
tion. 

The  activity  of  most  of  the  early  chemical  agents,  and  of  all  of 
them  if  subjected  to  pressure,  would  have  been  much  increased 
by  a  high  temperature.  There  can  be  no  reason  why  we  should 
suppose,  that  those  causes*  which  now  feed  the  fires  of  nearly 
two  hundred  active  volcanos,  were  dormant  in  the  youth  of  the 
planet.  On  the  contrary,  the  numerous  extinct  or  quiescent  vol- 
canos, of  unquestionable  character,  record  with  irrefragable  evi- 
dence, the  energy  and  extent  of  primeval  fire,  operating  both  as 
an  auxiliary  to  solution,  and  in  its  own  proper  agency  by  fusion; 
and  that,  without  taking  into  view  the  trap  rocks,  which,  if  finally 


but  a  small  fractional  part  of  the  cubical  contents  of  the  earth,  (only  ^  j  part)  and  the 
remaining  solid  parts  may  still  be  sufficiently  dense  to  give  the  required  specific  grav- 
ity. The  supposition  is  more  at  war  with  the  hypothesis  of  central  igneous  fluidity ; 
but  even  these  two  suppositions  are  still  reconcilable. 

*  Causes  which  will  be  considered  under  the  head  of  volcanos. 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  29 

admitted  to  have  had  an  igneous  origin,  will  greatly  fortify  this 
view  of  the  subject. 

When  the  planet  was  covered  by  an  aqueous  abyss,  all  volca- 
nos  must  have  been  submarine,  as  many  now  are.  They  would 
all  therefore  act  under  vast  pressure,  a  pressure  incomparably 
transcending  any  thing  effected  by  modern  experiment,  and  the 
heat  thus  accumulated  must  have  given  any  desired  activity  to 
water  and  to  watery  solutions  of  the  great  chemical  agents. 

While  therefore  provision  is  made,  in  this  manner,  upon  estab- 
lished mechanical  and  chemical  laws,  for  solution  on  the  greatest 
scale  of  magnitude,  anU  with  the  greatest  possible  energy  of  action, 
we  may  suppose  chemical  depositions  to  have  been  going  on  con- 
temporaneously or  subsequently,  either  confusedly,  as  in  granite, 
or  in  successive  layers,  as  in  gneiss  and  mica  slate  ;  and  the  im- 
bedded minerals  of  the  primitive  rocks,  the  garnets,  the  stauro- 
tides,  the  tourmalins,  the  beryls,  and  others,  were  doubtless,  con- 
temporaneous crystalizations  ;  their  elements  being  in  solution  in 
the  same  fluid,  and  uniting  by  the  force  of  their  peculiar  affini- 
ties, formed  the  minute  bodies,  the  integrant  atoms,  whose  con- 
cretion ultimately  produced  the  various  crystaline  solids,  which 
adorn  the  early  formations  of  the  globe. 

Water  and  fire  and  pressure  and  all  the  great  chemical  agents 
may  thus  have  conspired,  as  means  in  his  hands,  to  execute  the 
great  purposes  of  the  Creator,  in  effecting  the  arrangement  of 
the  crust  of  the  planet. 

It  becomes  easy  also  to  admit  that  all  those  catastrophes,  which 
can  reasonably  be  attributed  to  this  period,  may  have  happened. 

Igneous  agency,  the  parent  of  earthquakes,  acting  beneath  the 
rocks  already  formed,  and  beneath  the  incumbent  abyss,  might 
produce  fractures,  heavings,  dislocations  and  distortions,  tortuous 
flexions,  injections  of  veins  and  dykes,  subsidence  and  elevation 
of  strata,  and  all  the  irregularities  technically  called  faults  by  the 
miners.  Even  the  trap  rocks  themselves  may  have  been  thrown  up 
beneath  the  primevaFocean ;  they  may  have  broken  through  the 
strata  and  congealed  above  or  between  or  among  them,  in  ridges, 
peaks  or  flats ;  or  they  may  have  been  injected  in  dykes  or  veins, 


30  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

or  been  driven,  laterally,  between  the  strata,  rending  them  asun- 
der, as  if  cleft  by  wedges.* 

Although  in  giving  this  concise  sketch  of  the  possible  and  prob- 
able qualities,  powers  and  effects  of  the  primeval  abyss,  we  have 
endeavored  to  adhere  closely  to  acknowledged  facts  and  princi- 
ples as  established  by  experience  and  sound  reasoning,  we  do  not 
pretend  to  claim  for  our  speculations  the  verisimilitude  of  history. 
But,  the  only  credible  history  which  exists  furnishes  a  record, 
important  alike  to  philosophy  and  religion  ;  we  find  in  the  plan- 
et itself,  the  proof  that  the  record  is  true  ;  we  examine  by  the 
light  of  science  the  modus  operandi  and  we  think  we  can  trace 
its  development ;  although  we  do  not  confidently  aver,  that  the 
events  actually  happened  as  we  have  supposed,  we  endeavor  to 
prove,  that  the  constitution  of  things  and  the  records  of  evidence, 
which  the  planet  affords,  accord  with  our  supposition.  Thus  we 
honor  the  Divine  Author  by  tracing  the  operation  of  his  laws ;  we 
would  not  slur  them  over  under  the  vague  term  of  nature,  while 
we  admit  not  only  creative  power,  but  arranging  wisdom.t 

*  These  remarks  have  reference  of  course,  to  the  trap  rocks  that  appear  in  primi- 
tive regions,  but  it  is  obvious  that  a  similar  train  of  reasoning  is  applicable,  (mutatis 
mutandis)  to  the  trap  rocks  which  are  associated  with  the  more  recent  formations. 
If  these  rocks  are  the  offspring  of  subterranean  fire,  there  appears  no  reason  why 
their  date  should  be  restricted  to  any  one  series  of  rocks,  and  we  actually  find  them 
associated  with  all. 

t  The  author  of  this  sketch  is,  in  no  degree,  reluctant  to  avow  his  full  adoption  of 
the  Baconian  and  Newtonian  mode  of  reasoning  on  natural  phenomena,  as  regards 
their  ultimate  connexion  with  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe.  He  would 
not  force  moral  and  religious  topics  into  an  unnatural  association,  with  physical  sub- 
jects, and  he  thinks  it  contrary  both  to  good  policy  and  good  taste,  to  act  the  moralist 
on  every  occasion,  and  thus  to  render  trite  and  perhaps  offensive,  ideas  which,  more 
cautiously  and  less  frequently  introduced,  might  have  left  a  happy  impression.  But 
he  holds,  with  Newton,  that  Natural  Philosophy  sustains  an  indissoluble  connexion 
with  the  Deity,  as  the  first  cause  of  all  things,  and  as  the  final  cause  which  must 
forever  terminate  every  series  of  secondary  causes,  by  which  we  attempt  to  account 
for  natural  phenomena. 

This  reference  is  therefore  not  less  proper  on  physical  than  on  moral  subjects,  al- 
though the  liberty  should  be  more  sparingly  and  cautiously  used.  Surely,  if  on  any 
subject  of  natural  science  this  course  i?  proper,  it  is  in  relation  to  geology,  one  of 
whose  primary  objects,  is  to  trace  the  operation  of  the  Creator's  laws,  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  crust  of  the  planet,  which  is  our  present  abode. 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  31 

II.  The  rocks  in  question,  namely,  the  primitive,  lie  below  the 
others,  and  therefore  were  deposited Jirst  ;  they  generally  succeed 
each  other,  in  a  certain  order,  supporting   the  superincumbent 
rocks,  but  they  still  occasionally  break  through  them  all,  and  rise, 
so  as  form  the  highest  peaks  and  ridges  of  our  globe. 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  lower  the  rock,  the  older  it  must  be, 
just  as  the  foundations  of  a  house  must  be  deposited  before  the 
superstructure  can  be  added.* 

A  miracle,  it  is  true,  could  substitute  one  rock  for  another,  but 
we  are  reasoning  from  established  natural  causes,  and  not  from 
miracles,  and  we  know  not  of  any  cause  that  would  force  one 
rock  into  a  position  beneath  another,  except  volcanic  or  igneous 
agency,  which,  it  is  admitted  might  do  it  to  a  certain  small  ex- 
tent, but  never  on  a  great  scale.  Circumstances  would  also  in- 
dicate the  catastrophe,  such  as  the  marks  of  violence  and  the  al- 
tered appearance  which  the  neighboring  rocks  would  exhibit. 
Except  the  single  case  of  intrusion  by  volearuc  power,  it  would  be 
equally  true  of  deposition,  from  any  cause  whether  aqueous,  me- 
chanical or  igneous,  that  the  upper  rocks  must  be  the  most  recent. 

It  is  quite  superfluous  to  say,  that  several  rocks  may  have  been 
deposited  at  once  ;  it  is  true  that  several  may  have  been  deposit- 
ed from  the  same  general  agencies,  constituting  a  suite  or  forma- 
tion, but  it  would  still  be  true  that  there  would  be  succession,  ei- 
ther tardy  or  rapid. 

III.  The  primitive  rocks  contain  no  organized  bodies  ;  not  a 
fish   or  a  shell,  a  plant  or  any  thing  ever  endowed  with  life,  or 
any  fragment,  relic  or  impress,  of  any  such  body  is  ever  found 

*  Contemporaneous  crystalization  might  happen  through  large  masses  of  the  same 
species  of  rock,  but  is  not  credible  with  respect  to  successions  of  rocks  of  different 
kinds,  as  of  saccharoidal  limestone  in  gneiss,  serpentine  in  clay  slate,  &c. 

Even  igneous  depositions,  it  would  seem,  must  require  succession ;  one  igneous 
tide  bursting  through,  after  another  had  flowed  and  congealed ;  and  an  igneous  rock 
forcing  its  way,  in  fusion,  through  rocks  of  unquestionable  aqueous  or  mechanical  ori- 
gin. 

Who  would  believe,  for  instance,  that  the  greenstone  trap  of  Salisbury  Craig  at 
Edinburgh,  or  of  the  East  and  West  rocks  at  New  Haven,  (Connecticut,)  was  not 
deposited  after  the  sand  stone  and  conglomerate  rock  upon  which  they  repose ! 


32  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

in  them ;  this  fact,  with  others  to  be  mentioned  afterwards, 
evinces  that  the  fundamental  rocks  were  deposited  before  the 
creation  of  living  beings,  and  that  this  substratum  was  laid  for 
the  purpose  of  preparing  the  globe  for  its  great  destination— 
that  of  becoming  a  suitable  habitation  for  beings  endowed  with 
life. 

This  argument  is  of  a  negative  character,  but  still  it  appears  to 
be  conclusive,  and  it  would  be  conclusive  to  any  extent ;  for, 
were  all  rocks  destitute  of  organized  remains,  it  would  be  equally 
fair  to  conclude,  that  they  were  all  deposited  before  that  inter- 
esting epoch  in  the  creation,  when  life  began  to  appear  upon  the 
planet. 

The  argument  then,  respecting  the  relative  antiquity  of  the 
primitive  rocks  becomes  still  stronger,  when  we  have  ascertain- 
ed that  there  are  numerous  rocks  which  contain  organized  re- 
mains both  of  animals  and  plants,  but  that  they  are  never  the 
lowest  rocks,  and  that  they  are  rarely  highly  crystaline  in  their 
structure,  at  least  they  are  not  often  so  in  a  degree  to  make  them 
compare  with  the  rocks  that  lie  still  lower. 

But  suppose  that  a  rock  having  a  constitution  like  that  of  the 
primitive,  should  be  found  lying  upon  another  which  is  deci- 
dedly not  primitive,  for  example  granite  on  limestone  contain- 
ing organized  remains  ;  shall  we  continue  to  call  this  upper  rock 
primitive  ?  Certainly  not.  We  must  then  either  give  it  a  new 
name  and  refer  it  to  a  new  class,  or  allow  that  there  are  rocks  of 
that  particular  name,  which  are  not  primitive  but  of  a  more  re- 
cent date. 

Such  is  the  granite  discovered  by  Von  Buch  in  Norway  near 
Christiania,  provided  there  be  no  mistake.  It  is  said  to  be  a  true 
granite  reposing  upon  a  limestone  containing  orthoceroe  and  oth- 
er indubitable  animals.  Allowing  the  reality  of  this  so  called 
granite,  it  is  a  solitary  case,  and  need  not  therefore  disturb  our 
general  arrangement.  If  it  be  an  exception  it  doubtless  had  a 
particular  cause. 

But  should  we  find  granite  containing  fish  or  shells  or  plants, 
would  it  be  a  primitive  rock  ?  Clearly  not.  We  should  then 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  33 

as  before,  either  conclude  that  it  was  not  granite,  or  we  should 
allow  that  it  was  a  transition  or  secondary  granite.  No  such 
granite  has  however  been  discovered  and  probably  none  ever 
will  be.* 

IV.  The  fundamental  rocks  are  rarely  horizontal ;  they  are 
usually  inclined  more  or  less  to  the  horizon,  frequently  at  a  high 
angle,  and  sometimes  they  are  found  vertical,  that  is,  their  stra- 
ta are  on  edge ;  but  the  progress  of  research  has  evinced,  that 
the  rocks  of  the  different  classes  are  occasionally  found  in  all  po- 
sitions. 

It  is  no  longer  considered  as  true,  that  position,  in  relation  to 
the  angle  formed  with  the  horizon,  is  decisively  characteristic  of 
the  different  classes  of  rocks.  Still  the  distinction  is  not  entirely 
abolished,  nor  entirely  without  utility.  Secondary  rocks  are  usu- 
ally horizontal,  or  not  many  degrees  from  that  position  ;  primi- 
tive rocks  are  perhaps  always  inclined,  often  highly  so,  and  al- 
most never  quite  flat,  and  the  transition  strata  are  generally  in  an 
intermediate  position.  In  the  formations  of  North  America,  it  is 
however  much  more  common  to  find  primitive  rocks  at  low  levels, 
and  at  moderate  angles  of  elevation,  than  in  Europe. 

In  observing  rocks,  their  position  with  regard  to  inclination, 
is  always  to  be  taken  into  view,  but  it  would  be  unsafe  to  rely 
upon  this  character  alone.  The  mineralogical  constitution,  geo- 
logical connexion,  and  extraneous  and  other  foreign  contents  of 
the  rock,  (if  any  are  present,)  must  also  be  taken  into  account  in 
judging  of  its  geological  character. 

V.  The  fundamental  rocks  are  called  primitive,  by  some  pri- 
mary or  primordial,  in  allusion  to  their  relative  antiquity ;  in  ge- 


*  Rocks  consisting  of  the  ruins  of  granite,  are  sometimes  mistaken  for  true  granite, 
and  it  requires  some  experience  to  avoid  being  deceived.  A  few  years  since,  I  receiv- 
ed an  account,  from  a  remote  interior  state  on  this  continent,  of  granite  containing 
bituminous  coal  and  fossil  wood.  I  could  not  admit  the  correctness  of  the  observa- 
lion,  and  accordingly  discovered,  on  receiving  specimens  of  the  so  called  granite, 
that  the  rock  was  a  sand  stone  made  up  indeed  of  quartz,  feldspar  and  mica,  but 
merely  in  the  state  of  loose  and  mechanical  aggregation,  constituting  a  genuine 
sand  stone,  which  had  probably  been  formed  from  the  decomposition  of  granite, 

5 


34  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

olpgy,  this  fact  is  always  determined  by  their  position  and  con- 
stitution. 

The  term  is  not  intended  to  involve  theoretical  considerations, 
any  farther  than  it  designates  order  of  time  ;  and  whatever  theo- 
retical views  we  may  adopt,  we  must  admit  not  only  time,  but 
order  of  time.  As  to  the  amount  of  time,  geology  alone  is  not 
in  a  condition  to  decide  absolutely ;  judging  from  phenomena 
alone,  different  events  or  effects  would  require  periods  of  very 
different  length. 

If  we  could  admit  that  granite,  for  instance,  might  crystalize 
through  a  very  great  space,  in  a  short  time  ;  it  would  still  be 
incredible,  that  granite  and  its  cognate  rocks,  gneiss  and  mi- 
ca slate,  and  clay  slate ;  then  graywacke  and  other  early  frag- 
mented rocks  ;  then  anthracite  coal,  with  transition  slates,  con- 
taining impressions  of  fern  leaves  and  of  trilobites  ;  then  transi- 
tion limestones,  with  orthocera3  ;  encrinites,  and  corals ;  then 
bituminous  coal,  with  slates  containing  fish,  and  sandstones 
containing  culmiferous  plants  ;  it  would  be  quite  incredible, 
that  all  these  widely  different  deposits,  should  have  been  pro- 
duced, by  the  same  state  of  things,  and  laid  down  at  the  same 
time. 

VI.  The  principal  primitive  rocks  are  granite,  gneiss  and  mi- 
ca slate  and  other  slaty  rocks,  granular  limestone,  &c.  and  they 
generally  occur  in  a  particular  order,  granite  being  lowest. 

It  is  not  intended  on  this  occasion,  to  enumerate  all  the  rocks, 
or  to  describe  any  of  them  minutely.  In  studying  geology,  it  will 
probably  be  found  the  most  convenient  and  intelligible  course, 
to  pursue  a  particular  rock  through  its  entire  history,  and  thus 
to  present  a  connected  view  of  it,  rather  than  to  mention  it,  in 
part,  under  the  primitive,  then  again  perhaps  in  the  transition, 
and  then  again  in  the  secondary  and  even  in  the  tertiary. 

Limestone  is  in  this  condition. 

We  find  it  indubitably  primitive,  then  transition,  then  seconda- 
ry and  lastly  tertiary,  and  its  ruins  are  sometimes  found  even  in 
alluvial  or  diluvial  regions.  Slate  has  similar  characters.  The 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  35 

fragmented  rocks  are  found  in  all  the  classes  except  the  primi- 
tive,* and  so  of  other  rocks  in  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

VII.  The  epoch  of  the  deposition  of  the  primitive  rocks  ap- 
pears to  be  coincident  with  that  of  the  early  prevalence  of  a 
primeval  ocean. 

This  abyss  of  waters  which  existed  at  an  early  unknown  peri- 
od, before  the  time  of  tiie  final  arrangement!  of  the  surface, 
which  preceded  the  creation  of  man,  and  continued,  we  may 
suppose  for  an  unlimited  time,  is  just  such  a  state  of  things 
as  is  demanded  for  the  deposition  of  the  primitive  rocks,  and 
such  an  one  as  geologists}:  generally,  both  admit  and  require. 
In  this  period,  the  primitive  rocks  were  probably  deposited,  and 
nothing  appears  to  forbid  the  admission,  that  there  was  time 
enough  for  the  formation  of  all  their  crystals,  and  for  their  reg- 
ular arrangement. 

The  marks  of  disruption,  dislocation  and  derangement,  which 
the  primitive,  as  well  as  other  rocks  present,  justify  us  in  the 
opinion,  that  there  were  occasional  catastrophes,  interrupting  the 
general  order  of  events,  and  producing  local  disorder  ;  thus, 
strata,  may  have  sunk  by  subsidence,  for  want  of  adequate  sup- 
port, or  been  torn  asunder  by  earthquakes,  or  lifted  by  submarine 
volcanos  ;  these  are  however  subordinate  events,  and  do  not  radi- 
cally alter  or  subvert,  although  they  may  modify  our  general  views. 

Some  however,  imagine,  that  entire  mountain  ranges,  and 
even  entire  continents,  have  been  raised  by  the  force  of  subterra- 
nean fire,  and  there  seems,  as  already  suggested,  no  inconsistency 
or  improbability  involved  in  the  admission,  that  igneous  and 
aqueous  agency  may  have  been  concomitant  and  co-operative, 

*  Dr.  MacCulloch  admits  sandstone  into  the  primitive,  but  in  this  he  appears  to  be 
nearly  or  quite  alone,  and  it  is  certainly  very  desirable,  and  also  very  practicable, 
to  avoid  so  embarrassing  an  anomaly. 

t  Some  prefer  to  consider  it  as  a  reformation  from  the  wreck  of  a  former  world, 
or  more  correctly  speaking,  from  the  wreck  of  a  former  state  of  the  present  world. 

t  This  statement  requires  but  little  qualification,  even  as  regards  the  geologists 
who  imagine  a  vast  internal  fire,  by  which  the  primitive  rocks  were  deposited  from 
a  state  of  fusion,  for  they  are  obliged  to  call  in  the  aid  of  water  for  the  first  deposi- 
tion of  the  materials  of  the  primitive  rocks,  and  of  course  for  the  secondary. 


36  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

and  that,  by  their  alternating,  and  conflicting,  and  modifying  ef- 
fects, they  rnay  have  produced  the  actual  state  of  things  on  the 
surface  of  the  globe. 

A  vast  mass  of  evidence  has  been  accumulated,  and  is  con- 
stantly increasing,  which  evinces  that  internal  fire  still  prevails  to 
a  great  extent  in  the  interior  of  our  planet,  and  its  effects  ap- 
pear to  have  been  the  greatest,  and  the  most  extensive,  in  the 
earliest  periods.  Volcanic  mountains  are  known  to  have  risen, 
even  in  modern  times,  from  the  bosom  of  the  ocean,*  and 
permanent  islands  have  been,  and  are  still  existing,  where,  in 
former  ages,  the  sea  raged  uncontrolled.  The  first  postulate 
of  the  philosophers  of  fire,  is  therefore  proved  to  be  possi- 
ble, but,  where  mechanical  causes  are  largely  concerned,  it 
does  not  follow,  that,  because  an  effect  of  a  certain  extent  has  ta- 
ken place,  that  therefore  one  vastly  greater  has  happened. 

Trap  rocks  may  have  been  produced  by  subterranean  and  sub- 
marine fire,  but  it  does  not,  therefore  follow,  that  a  continent  has 
risen  from  the  deep.  If  so,  either  it  was  accumulated  by  suc- 
cessive submarine  eruptions,  or  it  was  lifted,  already  formed, 
by  subterranean  expansion,  and  in  either  case,  we  may  ask, 
whence  were  the  materials  supplied  ;  and  if  supplied  from  the 
regions  immediately  beneath,  what  fills  the  void,  and  if  not 
filled,  what  more  than  Roman  or  Gothic  arches,  are  provided  to 
sustain  the  enormous  weight  of  a  continent,  and  to  prevent  its 
plunging  anew  into  the  abyss,  and  carrying  down,  like  a  sinking 
ship,  all  that  are  embarked  upon  it.  Is  it  arched  over,  from  side 
to  side,  of  the  tremendous  cavern,  resting  firmly  upon  the  abut- 
ments of  the  solid  earth  ?  But  what  security  is  there,  that  sub- 
terranean fire  will  not  melt  these  abutments  down,  and  under- 
mine the  incumbent  continent  ? 

The  primitive  rocks  present  to  the  eye  of  one  who  has  been 
accustomed  to  examine  the  results  of  chemical  deposition,  very 
decisive  proofs  of  having  been  in  that  state  of  mobility,  which 
leaves  the  particles  at  liberty,  to  unite  according  to  the  laws  of 
corpuscular  attraction  ;  the  heterogeneous  particles  being  con- 

*  In  the  Grecian  Archipelago,  near  the  Azores,  &c.— See  Am.  Jour.  Vol.  XIII. 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  37 

nected  by  chemical,  and  the  homogeneous  by  mechanical  attrac- 
tion. Thus,  in  felspar — the  silex,  composed  of  silicium,  or  silicon 
and  oxigen — the  alurnine,  of  aluminum  and  oxigen — the  potassa 
or  soda,  of  potassium  or  sodium  and  oxigen — the  lime,  of  calcium 
and  oxigen,  and  the  oxid  of  iron,  of  iron  and  oxigen,  would  be 
formed,  supposing  these  to  be  the  ultimate  elements  of  the  min- 
eral, first  by  their  uniting,  chemically,  to  form  these  binary  com- 
pounds ;  then  these  binary  compounds  would  still  farther  uniter 
but  still  chemically,  to  form  the  integrant  particles  of  the  miner- 
al, and  these  particles  united  mechanically,  by  cohesion,  would 
form  the  mineral  itself. 

The  same  reasoning  may  be  applied  to  every  variety  of  rocks 
and  minerals.  Limestone,  consisting  for  its  immediate  princi- 
ples, of  lime,  carbonic  acid  and  water,  contains,  for  its  ultimate 
elements,  according  to  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  cal- 
cium, carbon,  hidrogen  and  oxigen ;  the  latter  principle  being 
united  with  each  of  the  former  ones,  so  as  to  produce  the  lime, 
(oxigen  and  calcium,)  the  carbonic  acid,  (carbon  and  oxigen,) 
and  the  water,  (oxigen  and  hidrogen.)  If  the  limestone  were 
a  magnesian  one,  then  we  must  add  oxigen  and  magnesium,  and 
so  of  other  earths,  as  silex  or  alumine,  if  they  were  present. 

How  far  back,  and  how  near  to  the  isolated,  independent  state* 
we  are  to  trace  each  element,  we  cannot  determine.  Whether 
the  elements  were  created,  in  the  first  place,  in  a  state  of  perfect 
freedom,  and  their  earliest  movement  was,  not  so  much,  that  of 
elemental  war,  as  of  elemental  combination ;  or  whether,  they 
were  combined  in  pairs,  and  those  pairs  again  combined,  to  form 
more  complex  results,  we  can  never  know  with  certainty ;  and 
all  our  suggestions  on  this  subject  being  necessarily  hypothetical, 
ought  of  course  to  be  concisely  stated. 

But  the  discussion  of  these  questions,  which  might  easily  be 
extended  to  the  most  complex  rocks,  and  to  all  their  imbedded 
minerals,  however  curious  and  even  interesting,  is,  in  no  way 
material  to  our  proceeding  to  reason  intelligibly — may  we  not 
say  plausibly,  or  even  conclusively,  upon  the  act  or  process, 
which  must,  according  to  physical  laws,  have  preceded  the  con- 
cretion of  the  materials  of  the  primitive  rocks. 


3,3  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

Suppose  the  elements  which  are  to  form  granite,  to  have 
already  united,  and  the  previous  fluidity,  whether  of  solution 
or  fusion,  or  bothr  to  have  established  a  state  of  things  favor- 
able to  the  grand  result,  the  formation  of  the  different  minerals, 
a  simultaneous  deposition  must  of  course  happen  ;  the  quartzy 
particles  must  find  their  fellows,  those  of  feldspar  will  do  the 
same,  and  those  of  mica  the  same,  and  the  three  minerals,  born 
at  the  same  moment,  will  find  repose  in  the  same  cradle.  In 
the  same  manner,  their  ornamental  companions,  (not  essen- 
tial to  the  rock,  but  often  studding  it,  like  gems  set  in  royal 
robes) — the  emeralds,  the  topazes,  the  garnets,  the  tourmalines, 
and  the  other  crystalizcd  minerals  which  sparkle  in  the  bosom 
of  the  primitive  rocks,  declare  a  common  birth.  True  it  is,  that 
creative  power  could  call  the  rocks  into  being,  without  any 
arranging  process  in  their  parts,  but  no  analogy  countenances 
the  truth  of  such  a  supposition,  and  neither  moral  nor  physical 
reasons  oblige  us  to  admit  so  improbable  a  supposition. 

Who  has  contemplated  the  stupendous  garnets  of  Fahlun — the 
equally  gigantic  quartz  and  felspar  crystals  of  the  Alps — the  more 
delicate  emeralds  of  Brazil  and  Ethiopia — the  variously  colored 
tourmalines  of  Chesterfield,  and  Goshen,  Mass.,  and  of  Paris  in 
Maine — the  fluorand  calcareous  spars,  of  Derbyshire  and  Cumber- 
land— the  idocrases  of  Vesuvius,  and  the  rubies  and  sapphires  of 
Ceylon  and  other  regions  of  India,  the  bubbles  of  air  included  with 
water  and  other  fluids  in  quartz — the  fibres  of  amianthus — the  crys- 
tals of  titanium — the  filaments  of  native  copper  and  silver  shut  up 
in  the  same  mineral — the  successive  crystalizations  of  galena — 
sulphate  of  barytes — calcareous  spar — quartz  and  fluor  spar,  often 
included  in  the  same  group — the  splendid  amethystine  and  oth- 
er geodes — little  grottoes  lined  with  polished  and  beautiful  geo- 
metrical figures — who  has  seen  all  these  things — the  ornaments 
of  our  cabinets,  and  has  doubted  that  they  were  as  truly  the  re- 
sults of  crystalization,  as  any  of  the  products  of  art.  which  are 
formed  in  our  laboratories  ? 

Crystalization  is  indeed  not  exclusively  the  attribute  of  primi- 
tive regions  ;  but  in  such  regions  it  is  eminently  conspicuous,  and 


PRIMITIVE  ROCKS.  39 

if  we  find  crystals  in  the  productions  of  every  geological  age, 
we  are  thus  furnished  with  proof,  that  these  agencies  continued  to 
operate,  although  with  diminished  frequency  and  energy,  through 
all  succeeding  periods,  and  that  they  have  not  ceased  even  in  our 
own  times,*  for  mineral  crystals  are,  every  moment,  forming 
around  us. 

Still  no  one  finds  in  the  upper  secondary  rocks — much  less  in 
the  tertiary,  the  numerous  and  grand  crystals  that  are  common 
in  the  primitive,  and  even  to  a  degree  in  the  transition  formations, 
and  no  one  looks  for  those  grand  crystal  cavities,  fours  a  cris- 
taux,  as  they  have  been  fancifully  called,!  except  in  the  ancient 
mountains,  and  in  the  veins  and  beds  by  which  they  are  intersected. 

No  person  who  has  been  conversant  with  the  effects  of  solu- 
tion, and  especially  of  solution,  aided  by  heat  and  pressure,  can 
easily  confound  them  with  those  of  mere  mechanical  deposi- 
tion. Take  a  piece  of  the  most  beautiful  granite — its  quartz  is 
translucent  if  not  transparent — its  feldspar  is  foliated  in  structure, 
presenting  two  regular  cleavage  planes,  united  at  definite  angles 
— its  mica  is  perfectly  foliated,  and  splits  into  innumerable  thin 
laminae,  each  of  which,  is  perfectly  transparent  and  has  a  high 
lustre,  and  this  last  property  is  common  (sometimes  in  a  less  de- 
gree,) to  the  quartz  and  the  feldspar.  Gneiss  and  mica  slate  and 
saccharoidal  limestone  are  distinguished,  in  a  greater  or  less  de- 
gree by  similar  characteristics.  Now,  translucency — transparen- 
cy— lustre — cleavage,  planes  and  regular  structure,  are  known 
and  established  results  of  chemical  deposition,  and  are  never  the 
effect  of  mechanical  aggregation.  Compare  the  above  proper- 

*  I  have  obtained  crystals  of  calcareous  spar — of  sulphate  of  barytes  and  of  sul- 
phate of  lime  and  some  of  them  repeatedly  as  accidental  results  in  chemical  proces- 
ses :  I  have  seen  even  quartz  crystals  form  rapidly  under  my  eye,  and  others  have 
cited  them  as  slowly  produced  with  regularity  and  beauty,  from  the  fluoric  solution  of 
silex.  Crystals  of  pyroxene — specular  iron,  titanium  and  other  minerals  have  been 
produced  by  volcanic  and  furnace  heat ;  more  than  forty  species  of  minerals  have 
been  observed  in  the  slags  of  furnaces,  and  white  pyroxene  has  been  produced  by 
the  action  of  fire  upon  the  constituents  of  this  mineral,  and  after  fusion,  it  has  re- 
cvystalized,  in  the  same  form. — Am.  Jowr.  Vol.  10.  p.  190. 

t  Patrin's  mineralogical  travels. 


40  PRIMITIVE  ROCKS. 

ties,  with  those  found  in  a  piece  of  clay  or  chalk,  and  no  person, 
however  unskilled  in  physical  characteristics,  can  possibly  attrib- 
ute them  to  a  similar  origin.  The  latter  have  as  obviously  sprung 
from  mechanical  as  the  former  from  chemical  laws ; — mechani- 
cal suspension  must  have  preceded  the  one,  and  solution,  fusion 
or  sublimation  the  other. 

Crystalization  is  the  most  exalted  agency  of  the  mineral  king- 
dom and  it  answers  to  organization  in  the  animal  and  vegetable ; 
but  it  is  entirely  unconnected  with  the  principle  of  life.  It  re- 
sults in  the  production  of  regular  solids — often  of  beautiful  figures, 
bounded  almost  always,  by  plane  faces  and  by  right  lines,  which 
constitute  the  outline  of  beauty  in  the  mineral  kingdom,  as  the 
curve  line  does  in  the  organized  kingdoms.  (Haiiy.) 

VIII.  Geological  research  clearly  proves,  that  the  earth  was 
gradually  redeemed  from  the  universal  and  long  continued  do- 
minion of  water  under  which  it  lay  at  its  first  creation.  The  ap- 
pearance of  the  dry  land,  necessarily  implies  previous  entire 
submersion,  and  taken  in  connexion  with  the  existence  of  the  uni- 
versal watery  abyss,  before  described,  necessarily  implies  all  that 
geology  requires  on  this  part  of  the  subject. 

The  tops,  the  peaks  and  ridges  of  the  highest  mountains,*  be- 
gan then  to  appear,  as  they  emerged  from  the  universal  primi- 
tive ocean,  and  as  its  waters  gradually  retired,  the  land  became 
more  and  more  denuded,  and  at  this  period  and  not  before,  it  be- 
came possible,  that  vegetables  should  begin  to  exist,  because 
they  had  now  a  place  and  soil  on  which  to  grow. 

It  is  possible  (but  there  is  perhaps  no  positive  evidence  of  the 
fact,)  that  some  aquatic  plants  might  have  been  created  a  little 
earlier,  but  the  primitive  ocean  was  evidently  then  too  much 
charged  with  mineral  matter  to  afford  a  proper  medium,  or  a 
proper  pabulum,  for  any  considerable  extent  of  animated  exist- 

*  It  is  not  material  here  to  discuss  the  origin  of  mountains — whether  they  were 
raised  from  below,  or  left  prominent  by  the  subsidence  of  the  contiguous  regions, 
or  were  reared  by  accumulation;  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands  that  they  existed  before 
the  subsidence  of  the  early  ocean,  whose  retreat  must  of  course  have  first  exposed 
their  summits. 


TRANSITION  ROCKS.  41 

ence,  either  vegetable  or  animal.  As  its  waters  were,  gradually, 
more  and  more  freed  from  foreign  matter,  by  the  progressive  de- 
position of  the  rocks,  it  began  to  be  fitted  for  the  simpler  forms 
of  animal  life,  and  its  qualities  might  not  have  been  inconsistent 
with  the  existence  of  some  species  of  aquatic  plants  ;  still,  we  be- 
lieve that  the  earliest  impressions  of  vegetables,  found  in  the  tran- 
sition strata,  are  generally  those  of  land  plants,  or  of  those  which 
might  grow  on  shores  or  in  swampy  or  marshy  situations. 

Plants  are  not  numerous  in  the  transition  strata  ;  as  far  as  they 
were  littoral,  aquatic  or  marine,  and  therefore  vegetating  in  or 
near  the  water,  they  would  be  found  in  the  deposits  of  stony  mat- 
ter that  were  embosomed  in  it ;  as  far  as  they  were  terrestrial, 
they  might  have  been  swept  in  by  winds,  storms,  tides,  and  cur- 
rents, and  would  thus  become  entombed.  As  to  the  animals,  they, 
being  altogether  aquatic  and  marine,  must  necessarily  live  and  die 
in  the  water,  and  their  remains  would  be  consolidated  in  the 
rocks  whose  deposition  was  then  going  on. 

TRANSITION  ROCKS. 

IX.  The  rocks  deposited  at  and  immediately  after  this  period, 
are  generally  less  crystaline  and  more  compact  in  their  structure 
than  the  primitive. 

The  crystalization,  although  often  conspicuous,  is  more  con- 
fused ;  in  the  transition  limestone,  it  sometimes  appears  only  in 
minute  plates  and  spangles,  but  the  translucence  is  usually  pre- 
served, especially  at  the  edges. 

The  number  of  foreign  and  imbedded  crystals  is  less  consider- 
able than  in  the  primitive  rocks,  and  we  begin  to  find  the  first 
proofs  of  certain  modes  of  mechanical  agency,  indicating  the 
commencement  and  earliest  effects  of  attrition  and  violence  upon 
the  rocks  already  formed. 

We  must  not  confound  these  mechanical  effects  with  those  al- 
ready mentioned  in  relation  to  the  primitive  rocks,  among  which 
we  find  so  many  proofs  of  sudden  and  great  violence,  causing 
ruptures,  dislocations  and  injections  of  foreign  matter  ;  the  rocks 
are  elevated,  contorted  and  fractured  ;  veins  and  dykes  are  in- 


42  TRANSITION  ROCKS. 

troduced  cutting  the  strata  ;  some  of  the  strata  are  below  and 
some  above  the  common  level  or  plane  of  the  same  strata  con- 
tinued, but  the  rocks  are  generally  in  or  near  their  original  geo- 
graphical location,  and  pebbles,  gravel  and  bowlders  are  rarely 
found. 

Still,  in  our  artificial  arrangements  in  geology,  we  must  remem- 
ber, that  near  the  dividing  lines  of  contiguous  departments,  there 
are  mixed  characters.  In  rocks,  decidedly  primitive,  we  find  (espe- 
cially where.a  later  formation  is  about  to  commence)  marks  of 
mechanical  agencies,  fragments  of  primitive  rocks,  and  entire  and 
sometimes  large  masses,  imbedded  in  a  basis  of  primitive  rock.* 

X.  In  these  rocks,  we  find  (in  general)  for  the  first  time,  frag- 
ments both  rounded  and  angular  of  all  the  previous  rocks  ;  some- 
times these  fragments  are  united  by  crystaline  matter,  forming 
the  paste  or  cement,  which  holds  them  together ;  at  other  times, 
the  paste  is  composed  of  nearly  or  quite  the  same  materials  with 
4he  fragments,  but  in  a  state  of  much  finer  division,  and  at  other 
times  there  is  little  interposed  cement. 

We  must  not  confound  the  crystaline  with  the  fragmentary  or 
brecciated  rocks,  although  some  rocks  of  the  transition  class  are 
almost  entirely  crystaline,  and  others  are  made  up  chiefly  of  ruins 
assembled  and  cemented. 

In  the  formation  of  the  transition  rocks,  chemical  and  mechan- 
ical action  appear  to  have  been  sometimes  concomitant,  and  at 
other  times,  alternating. 

Among  the  transition  marbles,  which  are  decidedly  crystaline, 
we  may  mention  the  limestone  of  the  peak  of  Derbyshire,  and  the 
imbedded  animals  also,  are  often  crystaline  in  their  structure. 
Many  of  the  transition  limestones  may  be  called  at  least  sub-crys- 
taline.  The  marbles  of  Bennington,  Middlebury,  arid  Swanton 
in  Vermont — the  latter  on  Lake  Champlain,  are  translucent  at 
the  edges  and  evince  a  previous  state  of  chemical  solution  ;  those 

*The  country  about  Northfield  and  Montague  and  Gill's  falls  in  Massachusetts, 
presents  remarkable  examples  of  this  nature,  and  they  are  the  more  interesting  from 
the  fact  that  we  can,  in  the  course  of  a  few  miles,  trace  a  progress  from  rocks  deci- 
dedly primitive,  to  conglomerate  and  even  to  gray  wacke  and  sand  stone. 


TRANSITION  ROCKS.  43 

of  Hudson,  N.  York,  are  similar  and  abound  with  encrinital  re- 
mains. 

But  many  of  the  rocks  of  this  class  are  most  palpably  frag- 
mentary, and  the  fragments  are  of  all  sizes,  from  those  that  are 
scarcely  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  to  those  whose  dimensions  are 
measured  by  inches  and  even  by  feet. 

The  graywackes  of  the  Chaudiere  falls  in  Lower  Canada,  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  of  the  Cattskill  mountains,  are  striking  exam- 
ples. "r 

The  brecciated  marble  of  the  Potomac,  employed  in  the  pub- 
lic buildings  at  Washington,  seems  to  belong  to  the  transition 
class.  It  is  a  remarkably  firm  rock,  composed  of  ovoidal  and  an- 
gular pebbles,  which  appear  to  have  received  their  shape  from 
friction  in  water.  The  cement  is  a  more  minutely  divided  sub- 
stance of  the  same  kind,  but  calcareous  matter  is  not  exclusively 
the  material  either  of  the  pebbles  or  of  the  cement. 

The  fragmentary  rocks  of  Rhode  Island,  extending  by  Provi- 
dence to  Boston,  and  which  are  very  conspicuous  in  Dorchester, 
Roxbury,  Brooklyn,  and  other  neighboring  towns,  are  fine  ex- 
amples of  early  formations  of  this  kind.  They  are  very  inter- 
esting five  miles  east  of  Newport,  at  a  place  called  Purgatory, 
where  a  large  mass  of  the  rock,  separated  by  the  natural  seams 
which  are  found  in  it,  running  parallel  for  a  great  distance  and 
cutting  the  pebbles  in  two,  has  fallen  out,  having  been  undermi- 
ned by  the  sea,  whose  waves,  when  impelled  by  storms,  break  and 
roar,  frightfully,  in  this  deep  chasm. 

The  pebbles  are  here  chiefly  quartz — they  are  ovoidal  in  form 
and  of  every  size  from  that  of  a  bird's  egg  to  that  of  a  common 
keg,  and  they  lie  generally  with  their  transverse  diameters  parallel. 

The  pebbles  of  the  fragmentary  rocks  about  Boston  are  very 
various  in  their  composition,  obviously  however  the  ruins  chiefly 
of  primitive  rocks.  The  pebbles,  which  there  lie  in  the  roads  and 
fields,  have  proceeded  from  the  disintegration  of  this  pudding 
stone.  Although  to  estimate  comprehensively,  the  extent  and 
variety  of  fragmentary  rocks,  we  must  include  in  our  view  the 
vast  deposits  of  the  periods  later  than  the  transition  ;  still 
we  may  pause  a  moment,  at  the  geological  period  now  before 


44  TRANSITION  ROCKS'. 

us,  and  enquire  whence  arose  the  mighty  masses  of  ruins  which, 
of  every  shape  and  variety  of  composition,  compose,  not  merely 
accidental  fragments, or  here  or  there  a  stratum  or  a  hill,  but  which 
cover  myriads  of  square  miles,  are  sometimes  the  basis  of  countries, 
and  rise  occasionally  even  into  mountains.  The  Cattskills  are  con- 
spicuous monuments  of  geological  revolutions.  Not  only  at  the 
base  but  at  the  summit,  thousands  of  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
Hudson  river,  we  find  these  mountains  composed  extensively  of 
fragmentary  rocks,  rounded  and  angular,  and  their  rude  piles  in- 
form us,  that  the  materials  of  which  they  are  built  were  once  loose 
and  rolling  about,  in  the  waves  of  the  early  ocean,  encountering 
friction  and  violence,  in  their  various  modes  of  action. 

If  we  call  to  mind  the  sketch  recently  presented  to  us  of  the 
effects  and  proofs  of  crystalization,  as  exhibited  in  the  early 
primitive  rocks,  the  contrast  afforded  by  the  fragmentary  rocks, 
must  appear  very  striking,  and  connected  with  their  relative  po- 
sition, can  leave  no  doubt  on  the  mind,  that  they  arose  from  a 
subsequent  and  totally  different  state  of  things. 

What  were  the  causes  that  broke  up  portions  of  the  primitive 
rocks  and  left  their  ruins  the  sport  of  the  waves,  destined,  in  the 
progress  of  time,  to  be  cemented  again  into  firm  masses  ? 

Beyond  the  wearing  effects  of  powers  still  in  action,  those  of 
the  weather  and  the  seasons,  and  of  the  vicissitudes  of  tempera- 
ture, we  are  at  liberty  to  add  the  convulsions  of  earthquake, 
tempest,  flood  and  fire,  by  which  our  planet  is  still  agitated.  Be- 
yond these  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  go,  because  we  have  no  facts 
to  form  certain  grounds  of  reasoning  ;  but  the  causes  that  have 
been  named  would,  in  tiie  course  of  ages,  perform  the  work,  great 
as  its  results  may  now  appear. 

XL  The  rocks  of  this  class  are  rarely  either  quite  vertical,  or 
quite  horizontal  in  their  position  ;  their  strata  are  inclined  often 
at  high  angles  from  the  horizon  ;  where  their  strata  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  primitive  rocks,  the  former  are  found  upon  the  latter, 
and  when  they  touch  primitive  mountains,  they  generally  slope 
down  their  flanks ;  always  lying  above  them,  but  declining  grad- 
ually towards  the  plain  countries,  and  terminating  commonly  be- 
neath them. 


TRANSITION  ROCKS.  45 

It  has  been  proposed  to  limit  their  obliquity  between  certain 
degrees,  for  instance,  10°  or  12°,  and  45°.  It  is  probable 
that  these  boundaries  would,  in  fact,  include  most  of  the  trans- 
ition rocks;  but  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  restrict  ourselves 
within  these  limits,  because,  we  do  occasionally  find  transition 
rocks  that  range  both  below  and  above  these  degrees.  Indeed, 
the  progress  of  geological  investigation  has  proved,  that  there  is 
much  less  reliance  to  be  placed  upon  the  position  of  rocks  in  re- 
gard to  obliquity,  than  was  formerly  imagined  ;  although  this  dis- 
tinction is  not  to  be  abandoned.  Alone,  it  would  perhaps  rarely 
serve  as  a  just  ground  of  conclusion,  but  in  connexion  with  other 
characters,  it  is  a  valuable  auxiliary.  As  to  elevation,  transition 
mountains  are  not  the  highest,  but  they  often  attain  a  considera- 
ble altitude,  as  in  the  Cattskills — two,  three  and  four  thousand 
feet :  and  transition  rocks  sometimes  occupy  also  low  levels. 

XII.  In  these  rocks,  we  find  the  first  traces  of  organized  be- 
ings ;  the  perfect  impresses  of  plants,  and  both  the  impresses  and 
the  entire  mineralized  bodies  of  millions  of  animals  ;  the  deposi- 
tion of  these  rocks  was  therefore  cotemporary  with,  or  subse- 
quent to,  the  creation  and  propagation  of  the  organized  beings, 
whose  impresses  or  whose  bodies  they  contain,  and  it  is  self  ev- 
ident that  these  rocks  could  not  have  been  deposited  prior  to 
the  date  of  the  animals  included  in  them. 

Both  the  plants  and  animals  lived  and  died  at  or  near  the  pla- 
ces where  they  are  found  entombed  in  the  rocks ;  for  they  pre- 
sent, in  many  instances,  few  or  no  marks  of  violence,  or  of  acci- 
dent ;  their  most  delicate  parts  are,  often,  perfectly  preserved ; 
animals,  with  all  their  organs  entire,  and  plants  with  their  fibres 
and  leaves  in  full  expansion. 

We  must  not,  however,  understand,  with  too  much  strictness, 
that  every  thing  was  always  quiet  in  that  ancient  ocean.  There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  there  were  tides,  as  the  laws  of  gravity 
were  doubtless  the  same  as  now  ;  there  were  probably  storms, 
and  tempests,  and  currents,  and  as  the  land  came  to  be  gradual- 
ly uncovered,  there  would  be  rivers  and  torrents  ;  there  were  also, 
we  must  believe,  earthquakes  and  volcanos  ;  hence,  or  from  one 
or  more  of  these  causes,  the  marks  of  violence  which  we  occa- 


/' 

S>  v» 


ff Thar  TV  H 


46  TRANSITION  ROCKS. 

sionally  find,  one  stratum  having  its  included  mineralized  organic 
bodies  entire,  and  a  contiguous  one  having  them  more  or  less 
broken.  (Our  author,  page  24.) 

Both  the  plants  and  animals,  generally  belong  to  races  which 
are  no  longer  found  alive,  or  if  analogous  races  exist,  they  are  re- 
lated to  the  ancient  ones,  rather  by  generic  than  by  specific  char- 
acters. The  animals  are  commonly  either  zoophites  (belonging 
chiefly  to  the  coral  family)  or  shell  fish,  in  many  instances  desti- 
tute, or  nearly  so,  of  locomotivity  ;  sometimes,  however,  they  are 
furnished  with  organs  for  motion.*  Sometimes  they  occupy  great 
districts  of  country,  and  form  almost  the  entire  mass  of  marble,  in 
the  bowels  of  mountains,  miles  from  day  light,  and  they  are  so 
firmly  united  to  the  rock,  as  to  form  part  of  its  substance.  Many 
of  the  architectural  marbles  owe  much  of  their  beauty  to  imbedded 
animals,  myriads  of  which  lie  almost  in  absolute  contact,  the  mat- 
ter of  the  rock  only  filling  up  the  void  between  them,  the  void 
occasioned  by  their  angular  and  confused  positions. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  understanding  how  the  marine  ani- 
mals, the  encrinites,  for  example,  that  fill  the  transition  limestone 
of  the  Peak  of  Derbyshire,  came  to  be  thus  entombed.  We  can- 
not doubt  that  the  animals  received  their  existence,  and  lived  and 
died  in  an  ocean  full  of  carbonate  of  lime,  in  solution  or  in  me- 
chanical suspension,  or  both.  When  they  died,  they  of  course 
subsided  to  the  bottom,  and  were  surrounded,  as  they  lay,  by  the 
concreting  calcareous  matter.  Multitudes  of  them  were  present 
at  the  same  time  and  place,  in  all  the  confusion  of  accidental  po- 
sition, and  therefore  were  enveloped,  just  as  we  find  them,  in  every 
imaginable  posture  ;  the  interstices  were  filled  by  the  calcareous 
deposit,  and  this  being  more  or  less  chemically  dissolved,  produced 
a  firm  sub-crystaline  mass,  a  section  of  which  shews  us  the  animals 
sawn  through,  and  admitting  of  a  polish  like  the  rest  of  the  rock. 

If  we  could  suppose  that  our  common  clams  and  oysters,  that 
lie  in  the  mud  of  our  harbors  and  inlets,  were  to  become  solidified 


*  Madrepores  and  encrinites  could  move  very  little  ;  the  echinus,  found  in  secon- 
dary rocks,  moved  on  his  spine,  which  served  him  for  a  foot,  and  some  of  the  early 
shell  fish  had  organs  to  enable  them  to  rise  and  fall  in  the  water.  (Our  author.) 


TRANSITION  ROCKS.  47 

into  one  mass,  along  with  the  matter  which  envelops  them,  the 
case  would  not  be  dissimilar ;  only  they  would  be  enveloped  in 
earthy,  instead  of  crystaline  matter,  and  the  rock  formed  from  it 
would  be  referred  to  the  most  recent  secondary,  or  to  the  tertiary. 

It  is  easily  understood,  also,  how  a  new  stratum,  either  of  the 
same  or  of  different  constitution,  may  be  deposited  upon  a  pre- 
vious one ;  and  with  it,  the  bodies  of  the  animals  that  lived  and 
died  in  the  fluid ;  and  these  might  be  the  same  animals  with 
those  of  a  previous  stratum,  or  of  a  different  species  or  genus,  it 
being  understood  that  each  successive  stratum  was,  in  its  turn, 
the  bottom  of  the  then  ocean,  and  also  the  upper  or  last  consoli- 
dated layer  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  as  it  then  was  at  that  place. 

As  we  have  no  direct  historical  evidence  to  the  facts,  it  is  im- 
possible to  say,  precisely,  what  circumstances  would  determine 
such  an  ocean,  to  deposit,  at  a  particular  time,  a  stratum  of  lime- 
stone with  madrepores  and  encrinites,  and  then  one  of  slate  with 
trilobites  and  fern  leaves,  and  then  one  of  breccia  or  sandstone 
with  stems  of  reeds  or  palm  leaves,  or  bodies  of  pectinites  and 
anomise. 

But  it  is  easy  to  imagine,  that  if  all  the  causes  necessary  to  pro- 
duce these  events,  were  in  successive  operation,  the  events  might 
succeed  each  other  in  the  order  supposed ;  and  that  they  did  in 
fact  so  succeed  each  other,  cannot  be  reasonably  doubted,  any 
more  than  that  an  edifice,  having  trap  rock  for  its  foundation, 
and  sandstone  for  its  basement,  and  marble  for  its  superstructure, 
and  wood  for  its  roof,  and  finished  with  sheet  lead,  zinc  or  iron, 
was  actually  constructed  of  these  materials,  connected  by  the 
builder  in  that  order. 

The  great  truths  of  geology  are  few,  simple  and  intelligible  ; 
needing  nothing  but  the  application  of  a  sound  judgment,  en- 
lightened by  science,  to  the  accurate  observation  of  facts.  The 
facts  can  often  be  distinctly  observed,  and  the  order  of  their  succes- 
sion ascertained,  whether  the  proximate  causes  and  the  immediate 
circumstances  can  be  discovered  or  not.  We  then  reason  upon 
them,  with  the  aid  of  the  knowledge  which  we  have  acquired, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  often  reason  conclusively  and 
correctlv. 


48  TRANSITION  ROCKS. 

It  is  a  supposition,  altogether  inadmissible,  and  unworthy  of  a 
serious  answer,  that  the  animal  and  vegetable  races,  entombed 
in  such  profusion,  and  buried  often  under  entire  mountain  ranges, 
or  firmly  cemented  into  their  very  bosom,  were  created  as  we  find 
them.  On  the  contrary,  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever, that  they 
were  once  living  beings,  performing  the  part  belonging  to  their 
respective  races,*  and  that  at  their  death,  or  soon  after,  they  were 
consolidated,  in  the  then  concreting  and  forming  rocky  strata. 

XIII.  The  transition  rocks  are  supposed  to  have  been  deposit- 
ed, while  the  earth  was  passing  from  the  state  of  a  watery  abyss 
to  a  habitable  condition,  and  therefore  they  received  the  name 
which  they  bear. 

The  leading  rocks  of  this  class  are,  most  of  the  variegated, 
fragmentary,  and  petrifaction  marbles,  many  pudding  stones, 
breccias  and  sand  stones,  all  the  grayvvackes  and  many  slates, 
especially  those  connected  with  the  anthracite  coal ;  such  as  that 
of  Lehigh,  that  of  Wilkesbarre,  and  that  of  Rhode  Island,  besides 
other  strata. 

Some  geologists,  instead  of  a  transition  class,  prefer  referring 
these  rocks  principally  to  those  which  we  shall  next  describe,  on- 
ly considering  a  part  of  them  as  the  older  rocks  of  that  class, 
and  another  part  as  newer  members  of  the  preceding. 

It  is  less  important  which  method  is  pursued,  than  that  the 
characteristic  distinctions  of  the  rocks  should  be  clearly  pointed 
out. 

The  word  transition  is  also  partly  descriptive  of  the  characters 
as  well  as  of  the  supposed  age  of  these  rocks  :  their  characters 
are  generally  midway  (in  transitu)  between  those  of  the  primitive 
and  of  the  secondary  rocks,  and  we  slide  down  by  a  pleasing  and 
instructive  progression  from  the  one  to  the  other. 


*The  trilobite,  one  of  the  early  fossilized  and  imbedded  animals,  could  bend  his 
body  double,  like  a  lobster,  having  in  his  back,  the  same  jointed  articulation ;  we 
find  him  sometimes  doubled,  and  sometimes  expanded,  as  he  lies  in  the  rocks,  and 
fiis  eyes  are  often  standing  prominently  out.  Grand  trilobites,  of  singular  size  and 
perfection,  were  shown  me  by  the  late  Mr.  John  Sherman,  at  Trenton  Falls,  near 
Utica,  (New  York)  where  they  were  obtained.  They  seemed  almost  looking  out  of 
the  black  limestone  rock,  as  if  still  animated. 


TRANSITION  ROCKS.  49 

I  am  therefore  inclined  to  retain  the  word  and  the  class  tran- 
sition, although  without  confining  it  to  the  precise  limits  designa- 
ted by  Werner,  who  introduced  this  division. 

It  is  seen  at  once,  what  inconvenience  is  experienced,  when 
we  attempt  to  dispense  with  the  transition  class  of  rocks.  We 
either  produce  confusion  in  the  primitive,  by  attaching  to  it  the 
unnatural  appendage  of  early  fragmentary  rocks,  or  we  swell  the 
secondary,  already  sufficiently  full. 

There  is  also  this  additional  embarrassment  in  giving  up  the 
transition  class.  Either  we  throw  into  the  primitive  class,  rocks 
containing  organized  remains,  which  creates  a  very  unfortunate 
blending  of  formations  extremely  dissimilar,  or  we  extend  the 
secondary  class  still  more,  and  group  together  organized  remains 
of  almost  all  ages,  of  "all  indeed,  except  of  the  tertiary  and  allu- 
vial.* 

Regarding  therefore,  for  the  present,  Werner's  theoretical 
ideas  as  to  the  transit  of  the  earth  from  a  chaotic  to  a  habitable 
state,  in  no  other  light,  than  as  the  ground  of  a  classification,  we 
find  that  it  is  impossible,  without  great  iuconvenience,  to  neglect 
those  peculiar  characters  and  circumstances  which  denote  an  ac- 
tual transition  in  the  nature  and  position  of  the  rocks,  and  which 
therefore  sustain  the  propriety  of  this  or  of  some  analogous  divis- 
ion. 

XIV.  Not  only  the  tops  and  ridges  but  the  flanks  of  the  high- 
est Alpine  chains  were  now,  as  we  may  presume,  uncovered,  and 
with  them  a  portion  of  the  highly  elevated  land  was  brought  into 
view  ;  the  valleys,  basins,  defiles  and  plains,  with  the  moderately 
elevated  regions,  were  probably  still  covered  by  the  remains  of 
the  original  ocean,  and  the  waters  appear  to  have  been  freed  from 
a  considerable  portion  of  their  chemically  dissolved  mineral  con- 
tents ;  it  would  seem  however  that  they  still  retained  matter  in 


*  The  ingenious  division  of  Messrs  Conybeare  and  Philips,  is  not  chargeable  with 
these  inconveniences,  and  is  in  many  respects  very  good  ;  but  hitherto  it  is  little 
known  out  of  England,  and  perhaps  it  has  a  happier  application  in  that  country, 
where  the  coal  strata  hold  so  conspicuous  a  rank,  than  in  most  other  countries, 

7 


50  TRANSITION  ROCKS. 

chemical  solution,  and  much  that  was  in  loose  fragments  or  me- 
chanically suspended  ;  the  latter  state  of  things  necessarily  must 
have  occurred,  because  there  was  now  an  extensive  surface  ex- 
posed to  mechanical  agencies.  It  would  however  appear  that 
the  waters  had  become  much  more  fitted  to  support  life,  and 
the  life  of  animals  of  more  complex  structure,  and  which  de- 
mand a  purer  medium  and  a  pabulum  less  mineral.  Every  thing 
seems  now  to  have  been  prepared  for  the  next  grand  epoch. 

The  creation  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  races  appears  to 
have  gone  on  progressively  with  the  deposition  of  the  mineral 
strata  and  masses.  It  is  impossible  to  form  any  other  inference, 
if  we  examine  the  contents  of  the  terrene  crust.  The  only  point 
that  admits  of  discussion  is,  as  to  the  amount  of  time  employed. 
We  shall  be  in  the  best  situation  to  judge  of  this  after  having 
surveyed  the  entire  subject,  including  the  phenomena  of  the 
deluge,  which,  being  the  last  grand  catastrophe,  that  has  hap- 
pened upon  the  planet,  has  left,  as  might  be  supposed,  its  vesti- 
gia every  where.  These  appearances  and  their  causes  must  form 
a  distinct  subject  of  consideration,  and  no  one  can  reason,  cor- 
rectly and  conclusively,  upon  geology,  who  does  not  separate  the 
events  connected  with  the  great  catastrophe  which  destroyed 
nearly  the  whole  human  family,  and  most  of  the  animals,  from 
those  events  which  belong  to  the  earlier  periods  of  the  planet  and 
preceded  the  creation  of  man. 

The  geological  evidence  that  supports  the  history  of  the  flood 
is  most  abundant  and  altogether  satisfactory  ;  but  it  is  peculiar, 
and  appropriate,  and  is  very  much  confused  and  weakened,  by 
being  blended  with  the  facts  belonging  to  the  primitive  watery 
abyss,  most  of  which  have  no  connexion  with  or  resemblance  to 
the  events,  belonging  to  this  period. 

Before  geology  had  become  a  science,  it  was  very  natural  and 
perhaps  unavoidable,  that  these  effects  should  be,  to  a  degree, 
confounded,  but  the  discrimination  which  divides  them  and  as- 
signs to  each  the  results  that  belong  to  it,  is,  in  most  cases, 
no  longer  difficult,  and  it  is  very  unhappy,  in  every  view,  that  mis- 
takes should  be  committed  on  this  subject. 


SECONDARY  ROCKS.  51 

SECONDARY  ROCKS. 

XV.  From   this  period   there  is  a  progression   in  the  posi- 
tion, constitution  and  contents  of  the  rocks,  which,  although  it 
sometimes  presents  only  shades  of  difference,  in  contiguous  mem- 
bers, is  widely  diverse  in  the  extremes,  and  occasionally  in  depo- 
sits of  nearly  the  same  age. 

In  our  artificial  divisions  of  natural  subjects,  we  are  liable  to 
do  violence  near  the  dividing  lines.  This  is  particularly  true  in 
geology.  If  we  can  hardly  separate  the  later  members  of  the 
primitive  from  the  earlier  members  of  the  transition  class  of 
rocks,  it  is  perhaps  still  more  difficult  to  distinguish  accurately 
between  the  borderers  of  the  transition  and  the  secondary. 

Still,  for  the  sake  of  perspicuity  and  for  the  assistance  of  the 
memory,  it  is  necessary  to  fix  the  limits  between  the  two. 

But  the  truth  is,  that  there  is  a  gradual  and  instructive  pro- 
gression from  the  earliest  primitive  down  through  the  transition, 
secondary  and  tertiary,  to  the  diluvial  and  alluvial,  including  the 
undoubted  but  anomalous  productions  of  fire,  the  lavas  ; — and  the 
trap  rocks  and  some  of  the  porphyries,  which,  in  the  opinion  of 
most  geologists,  had  the  same  origin. 

After  the  geological  student  has  surveyed  the  whole,  he  will 
be  little  embarrassed  by  the  artificial  divisions  which  have  aided 
him  in  his  research.  Having  reached  the  top  of  the  building,  he 
will  regard  the  stages  and  ladders  by  which  he  ascended,  not  as 
essential  parts  of  the  edifice,  but  merely  as  the  means  of  his  ele- 
vation. 

XVI.  The  position  of  the  secondary  rocks  is  generally  horizon- 
tal or  nearly  so,  varying  commonly,  but  a  few  degrees  from  that  po- 
sition. Sometimes  however,  they  are  found  inclined  at  high  angles, 
and  even,  as  is  asserted,  in  a  few  rare  cases,  in  a  vertical  position. 

The  truth  seems  to  be  here  also  as  with  the  primitive  and 
transition,  that  position  in  regard  to  obliquity,  is  not  a  decisive 
indication  of  the  character  of  a  rock  ;  still  the  positions  of  the- 
rocks  are  generally  those  that  have  been  described. 


52  SECONDARY  ROCKS. 

These  rocks,  where  they  are  found  in  connexion  with  the 
classes  before  described,  generally  occupy  the  lower  declivities  of 
the  mountains,  reposing  upon  the  transition  rocks,  or  if  these  are 
wanting,  upon  the  primitive,  and  they  often  slope  gradually  away 
into  the  plains  of  which  (if  they  are  present  at  all,)  they  form  the 
upper  surface ;  these  rocks  are  not  always  found  on  the  plains, 
whose  immediate  surface  is  sometimes  formed  by  rocks  of  the 
transition  or  primitive  class.  But  when  the  three  are  present  at 
once  (which  frequently  happens)  those  rocks  now  under  consid- 
eration are  on  the  top,  the  transition  are  next  below  and  the 
primitive  at  the  bottom.  It  is  believed  that  in  every  country,  by 
perforating  to  a  certain  depth,  we  should  always  arrive  at  primi- 
tive rocks,  but  in  particular  situations,  those  of  either  class  may 
be  occasionally  found  on  the  surface  ;  the  newer  rocks  when  ab- 
sent, either  never  having  been  deposited  in  that  place,  or  having 
been  removed  by  gradual  or  by  violent  operations. 

The  primitive  rocks,  form,  by  far,  the  greater  part  of  the  crust 
of  the  globe  ;  they  constitute  the  firm  basis  of  every  country. 
Whether  they  appear  at  the  surface  or  not,  depends  upon  the 
presence  or  absence  of  the  other  classes  of  rocks. 

Either  of  those  classes  may  at  particular  places,  cover  the  sur- 
face, and  should  the  secondary  alone  appear,  it  may  be  impossi- 
ble to  know  whether  the  rocks,  intermediate  in  character  be- 
tween the  secondary  and  the  primitive,  (the  transition)  exist  be- 
low ;  but,  in  general,  we  may  be  sure  of  this  fact,  that  a  newer 
rock  will  not  be  found  below  an  older  one. 

It  may  happen,  as  in  Saxony,  and  many  other  countries,  that 
the  several  classes  of  rocks  may  be  exhibited  in  regular  succes- 
sion, the  older  rocks  breaking  through  the  newer  and  exposing 
portions  of  their  masses  uncovered. 

It  may,  even  happen,  that  the  peaks  and  ridges  may  be  primi- 
tive, the  higher  slopes  and  flanks  transition,  the  lower  secondary 
or  tertiary,  and  the  plains  and  hollows  diluvial  or  alluvial,  with 
perhaps  an  interlude  of  trap,  or  porphyry,  or  trachytic  rocks,  in- 
truding among  the  rest,  or  crowning  some  of  them  ;  but  this  reg- 
ularity of  order  is  rarely  found  in  full  detail. 


SECONDARY  ROCKS. 

XVII.  The  rocks  of  this  class  are  called  secondary,  in  t  elation 
to  the  supposed  period  of  their  deposition.     They  occupy  some 
entire  countries,  covering  the  primitive  and  transition  classes. 
They  are  not  always  confined  to  plains  and  basins,  but  frequent- 
ly rise  into  hills ;  sometimes  even  into  mountains  of  moderate 
elevation,  and  frequently,  they  form  what  is  called  a  rolling  sur- 
face. 

Secondary  countries  constitute  a  very  considerable  part  of  the 
earth's  upper  surface.  A  vast  tract,  mainly  secondary — some  of 
it  perhaps  mounting  to  the  transition — extends  from  the  we&ftern 
slopes  of  the  Alleghany  mountains  to  the  Rocky  mountains,  form- 
ing one  of  the  largest  surfaces  of  derivative  rocks  in  the  world. 

On  the  contrary,  extensive  ranges  of  the  Alleghany  mountains, 
running  parallel  with  others  of  the  secondary  and  transition  class, 
are  primitive,  and  primitive  rocks  occupy  the  surface  of  a  very 
large  part  of  the  eastern  or  New  England  states. 

Consequently,  as  in  other  regions,  the  scenery,  the  building 
materials,  the  soil,  the  agricultural  processes  and  productions, 
and  the  very  manners  and  modes  of  life  of  the  inhabitants, 
vary  with  the  physical  features  of  the  country.  This  is  true  atyo 
of  the  water  courses  and  water  power,  the  qualities  of  the  water, 
and  to  some  extent,  of  the  very  aspect  of  the  sky. 

XVIII.  Their  constitution  is  progressively,  less  and  less  cheui- 
ical,  and  more  and  more  mechanical,  in  some  degree,  according  <ip 
their  age  ;  the  older  members  of  the  series  contain  considerable- 
traces  of  crystalization,  but  the  newer  are  often  quite  earthy,  anci 
composed  of  finely  divided  parts,  aggregated  with  little  or  no  crys» 
taline  matter  between  the  portions.    The  transparency,  lustre  and! 
pure  bright  colors ;  the  numerous  aggregated  and  imbedded  crys- 
tals, and  the  delicate  structure  of  parts  so  conspicuous  in  the  older 
rocks,  are  almost  entirely  wanting,  in  the  most  recent  secondary. 
When  crystals  are  found,  they  have  generally  resulted  from  the  in-; 
filtration  of  fluids,  subsequently  to  the  formation  of  the  rocks,  and 
therefore  the  crystals  occupy  veins  and  cavities,  and  the  mass  of 
the  rock  is  commonly  destitute  of  them. 


54  SECONDARY  ROCKS. 

The  agency  of  subterranean  fire  may  have  produced  many 
crystalizations,  especially  in  the  ignigenous  rocks,  and  we  are  not 
to  suppose  that  all  crystals  have  originated  from  aqueous  solu- 
tion. It  has  been  proved,  as  well  by  the  crystals  produced  by 
fire,  in  the  case  of  volcanic  eruptions,  as  by  those  which  are  oc- 
casionally found  in  the  furnaces  of  the  arts,  and  in  heated  and  ig- 
nited vessels  in  our  laboratories,  that  heat  can  form  these  beauti- 
ful solids ;  but,  in  general,  there  appears  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  secondary  rocks  have  been  exposed  to  heat ;  and  we  look  in 
vain  for  the  splendid  imbedded  crystals,  as  well  as  for  the  general 
crystaline  structure,  by  which  the  earlier  primitive  rocks  are  dis- 
tinguished, 

Who  expects  to  see  in  the  sandstones  and  shales,  and  in  the 
compact  limestones,  that  display  of  crystals,  which  is  so  com- 
mon in  the  primitive  ? 

We  must  not,  however,  attempt  to  limit  natural  operations  too 
strictly.  Every  thing  is  not  chemical  that  is  early,  nor  every 
thing  mechanical  that  is  late.  In  the  progressive  development 
of  the  present  order  of  things,  there  appear  to  have  been  altera- 
tions, and  successions  of  periods  characterized  by  chemical  and 
mechanical  deposits.  The  fragmentary  rocks  begin  very  early, 
immediately  after  the  primitive,  and  even,  perhaps,  with  the 
latest  of  that  class,  and  they  continue  through  all  the  forma- 
tions, down  to  the  alluvial  and  diluvial.  Their  deposits  are, 
however,  often  interrupted  by  chemical  formations,  and  there- 
fore we  still  find  chemical  deposits,  even  among  the  secon- 
dary, and  mechanical  among  the  transition.  This,  however, 
does  not  seriously  invalidate  the  truth  of  the  general  statement, 
that  the  higher  we  mount  in  the  ages  of  rocks,  the  more  chemi- 
cal they  are  in  their  composition,  and  the  lower  we  descend  in 
lime,  the  more  mechanical. 

It  is  generally  true,  that  the  lower  the  position  of  a  rock,  the 
deeper  it  lies  in  the  earth,  the  more  chemical  is  its  constitution, 
and  the  more  superficial,  (provided  the  several  classes  of  rocks 
be  present  at  the  same  place)  the  more  mechanical  it  will  be 
found.  These  truths,  originally  developed  by  Werner,  have 


SECONDARY  ROCKS.  55 

been,  in  part,  questioned  or  denied  by  Dr.  MacCulloch,  upon 
the  evidence  of  the  strata,  contained  in  a  very  limited,  although 
a  very  interesting  district,  the  West  of  Scotland  ;  but  the  struc- 
ture of  the  United  States,  and  generally  of  North  America,  great- 
ly confirms  the  original  view  of  the  geologist  of  Friburg. 

There  are  splendid  crystalizations  in  the  transition  and  earlier 
secondary  limestone,  as  in  Derbyshire,  and  at  Lockport  and  Ni- 
agara, in  the  State  of  New  York.  In  the  two  latter  places,  al- 
though the  rocks  are  usually  called  secondary,  and  lie  very  flat, 
there  is  a  strong  approximation  to  the  transition  character. 

XIX.  The  secondary  rocks  are  often  composed  of  palpable 
fragments,  being  the  ruins  of  the  preceding  rocks. 

Many  breccias  and  pudding  stones,  and  a  vast  variety  of  sand- 
stones, are  of  this  description ;  and  whether  they  are  older  or 
newer  deposits  of  this  kind,  that  is,  whether  they  are  referrible  to 
the  transition  or  secondary  rocks,  must  be  decided  by  their  ap- 
pearance, relative  position,  contents,  &c.  The  most  recent  sec- 
ondary deposits  are  scarcely  to  be  distinguished,  except  by  their 
stronger  aggregation,  from  clays,  soil  and  sand,  and  other  merely 
earthy  masses,  of  the  tertiary  or  alluvial. 

Indeed,  the  tertiary  class,  introduced  within  a  few  years,  com- 
pletes the  connexion  between  the  secondary  and  the  most  recent 
deposits.* 

XX.  The  secondary  rocks,  as  a  class,  abound  with  organized 
bodies,  and  with  their  relics  and  impresses. 

It  is  not  true,  that  every  secondary  rock  contains  such  remains, 
nor  that  the  same  rock  is  always  characterized  either  by  their 
presence  or  absence ;  but,  secondary  rocks  often  contain  or- 
ganized remains,  in  astonishing  quantities. 


*  Some  persons  have  urged  that  the  term  primary  should  be  applied  to  the  primi- 
tive rocks,  secondary  to  the  transition,  and  tertiary  to  the  secondary.  This  would  no 
doubt  be,  numerically,  more  correct,  but  it  would  not  now  be  judicious  to  disturb 
the  received  acceptation  of  words,  which  really  convey  no  false  idea,  and  we  should 
lose  the  advantage  of  the  word  transition,  which  is  very  significant,  and  in  the  sense 
which  has  been  explained,  its  use  is  very  just.  Besides,  a  frequent  change  of  terms 
is  a  great  evil,  and  it  is  one  of  the  vices  of  the  science  of  this  age. 


56  SECONDARY  ROCKS. 

The  older  rocks  of  this  class,  generally  abound  in  shells  of  mol- 
luscous animals,  principally  of  extinct  genera,  and  there  is  a  pro- 
gression through  the  more  recent  strata,  exhibiting  a  greater  and 
greater  approximation  towards  the  more  complicated  structure  of 
the  most  perfect  animals ;  and  the  newer  rocks  of  this  class,  and 
of  the  strata  that  lie  upon  them,  including  the  tertiary,  contain 
reptiles,  fish,  and  even  birds,  and  some  terrestrial  quadrupeds. 
Within  a  few  years,  however,  the  skeletons  of  some  very  large 
oviparous  animals  of  the  crocodile  family,  namely,  the  ichthyo- 
saurus or  fish  lizard,  the  megalosaurus  or  great  lizard,  and  the  pie- 
siosaurus,  have  been  found  in  the  lias  limestone  of  England. 

The  secondary  rocks  abound  with  the  impressions  of  plants, 
and  tlhere  is,  with  respect  both  to  them  and  the  animals,  a  grad- 
ual progress  from  those  which  are  unknown,  or  little  known  at 
the  present  day,  up  to  those  that  are  similar  to,  or  identical  with, 
the  existing  races.  Many  distinguished  geologists  entertain  the 
opiriion,  which  is  sustained  by  numerous  observations,  although, 
perhaps,  not  absolutely  confirmed  in  its  fullest  extent,  that  the 
same  rocks,  either  of  the  transition  or  secondary  kind,  contain, 
when  they  have  any  such  relics,  organized  remains  of  the  same 
species  or  genera  of  plants  and  animals,  so  that  a  given  rock, 
in  the  most  remote  countries,  exhibits,  as  is  supposed,  substan- 
tially the  same  relics,  and  therefore  it  is  inferred  that  the  depo- 
sition of  these  rocks  probably  arose  from  the  same  causes,  and 
was  attended  by  similar  circumstances.  If  this  position  is  not 
fully  established,  so  considerable  an  approximation  has  been  made 
towards  confirming  it,  that  the  fossil  organic  bodies  contained  in 
rocks,  are  now  considered  as  good  indicia  of  the  geological  age^. 
and  character  of  the  strata  in  which  they  occur. 

lit  is  to  be  observed,  that,  excepting  in  the  coal  formations,  the 
rqmains  of  plants  are  much  less  numerous  in  the  rocks,  than 
those  of  animals  ;  and  among  animals — until  we  arrive  in  the  most 
superficial,  and  the  most  imperfectly  consolidated  rocks — the 
greater  part,  both  in  the  transition  and  secondary  formations, 
are  marine  or  aquatic. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  plants  are  less  frequent  than  ani- 
mals. Until  the  latest  periods  of  the  redemption  of  the  earth 


SECONDARY   ROCKS.  57 

from  the  dominion  of  water,  there  must  have  been  a  much  less 
perfect  accommodation  of  things  to  vegetable,  than  to  animal 
life,  and  therefore  it  might  be  expected  that  the  impresses  of 
plants  should  be  more  rare  than  those  of  animals. 

They  are  few  in  the  transition  rocks,  and,  in  that  class,  they 
are  most  frequent  in  the  strata  connected  with  the  anthracite 
coat. 

Among  the  secondary  rocks  also,  they  are  most  abundant  in 
the  bituminous  coal  formation",  and  they  increase  in  quantity  and 
variety,  as  we  approach  the  tertiary,  in  which,  and  the  most  re- 
cent secondary,  they  are  numerous  ;  and  we  end  by  finding  in- 
humed wood  in  the  form  of  lignite,  or  bituminized  wood,  or  wood 
slightly  mineralized ;  and  eventually  we  find  wood  unchanged  ; 
and  thus  we  trace  the  vegetable  families,  from  their  commence- 
ment on  the  borders  of  the  primitive,  quite  down  to  our  own 
times. 

The  remarks  that  were  made  on  the  fossil  animal  remains  of 
the  transition  class,  are,  in  a  great  measure,  applicable  here.  As 
the  earlier  animal  races  were  evidently  produced,  lived,  and  died, 
in  the  water,  and  as  even  many  of  the  more  recent  were  amphib- 
ious, we  cannot  be  surprised  that  their  remains  should  have  been 
deposited  in  the  bottom  of  the  then  existing  ocean,  vyhere  they 
appear  to  have  been  consolidated,  along  with  the  matter  of  the 
rocks,  which  was  in  the  course  of  deposition  around  them.  Their 
deposition  was  evidently  progressive  ;  and  successive  genera- 
tions, either  of  the  same,  or  of  different  species  and  genera,  were, 
in  their  turn,  entombed  and  mineralized,  and  thus  prepared  for 
exhibition  to  the  men  of  remote  ages,  who  should  chance  to  look 
into  the  natural  mausoleums  containing  them. 

The  testaceous  animals,  being  already  protected  by  a  natural 
calcareous  covering,  needed  to  be  changed  only  in  the  interior 
or  living  part.  Sometimes  this  is  petrified  with  the  same  mineral 
matter  as  the  shell ;  at  other  times,  the  shell  is  calcareous,  and 
the  animal  is  silicified ;  this  is  the  fact,  particularly  with  many 
of  the  chalk  fossils;  the  echinus  and  the  alcyonia  are  often  masses 

8 


58  SECONDARY  ROCKS. 

of  flint,  still,  however,  retaining  the  organized  form,  while  every 
thing  around  them  is  calcareous. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  doubt,  that  the  process  of  animal  and 
mineral  deposition,  which  has  been  thus  concisely  described,  was 
that  which  really  happened.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  op- 
erations of  fire,  at  preceding  or  subsequent  periods,  it  is  impossi- 
ble that  it  should  have  been  concerned  in  the  first  deposition  of 
the  mineral  strata,  containing  organized  remains.  Indeed,  no 
geologist,  however  inclined-tQ  attribute  as  many  things  as  possi- 
ble, to  igneous  agency,  has  supposed  that  animal  or  vegetable 
life  could  ever  be  produced  or  sustained  in  the  midst  of  fire  ;  and 
indeed,  it  is  quite  incredible,  that  strata,  containing  distinct  or- 
ganized remains,  were  ever  melted  ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  imagine  that 
they  could  be  even  softened,  in  any  great  degree,  without  de- 
stroying or  materially  deranging  the  organized  texture.* 

XXI.  It  appears  evident  that  the  mineralized  plants  and  ani- 
mals of  the  solid  strata  have  not  been  collected  in  these  situations, 
by  any  sudden  and  local,  or  even  general  catastrophe,  for  as  an 
author  remarks,  "  among  the  immense  number  of  fossil  shells, 
many  are  remarkable  for  their  extreme  thinness,  delicacy  and 
minuteness  of  parts,  none  of  which  have  been  injured,  but  on  the 
contrary  are  most  perfectly  preserved."  Among  the  plants  of 
the  coal  formation  situated  sometimes  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  feet  below  the  surface,  and  covered  by  many  beds  of  solid 
rocks,  their  leaves,  many  of  which  are  of  the  most  tender  and 
delicate  structure,  are  found  fully  expanded,  and  in  their  natural 
position,  in  regard  to  the  rest  of  the  plant  and  laid  out,  as  it 
were,  with  as  much  care  as  in  the  hortus  siccus  of  a  botanist. 
The  minutest  parts  do  not  appear  to  have  suffered  attrition  or 
injury  of  any  kind.t 


*  Organized  remains,  or  more  strictly,  petrifactions,  have  been  beautifully  named, 
the  medals  of  the  creation.  Laid  by,  in  ancient  and  progressive  time,  in  the  bosom 
of  the  deep,  in  which  the  rocks,  containing  them,  were  formed,  they  furnish  a  per- 
petual incentive  and  reward  to  investigation. 

t  To  the  truth  of  this  remark,  there  are  of  course  exceptions;  there  are  disorder- 
ed strata  and  aggregates,  upon  which  are  impressed  marks  of  violence,  exerted,  ci- 


SECONDARY  ROCKS.  59 

It  is  evident  therefore,  that  notwithstanding  partial  and  local 
exceptions,  the  general  state  of  things,  at  the  time  of  these  de- 
positions, was  favorable  to  the  quietness  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life,  and  to  the  preservation  of  the  remains  of  both  kingdoms. 

XXII.  Without  excluding  the  possibility  of  transportation  in 
particular  cases,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  that  in  general  these 
plants  and  animals  lived  and  died  at  or  near  the  places  where  their 
remains  are  found,  and  that  at  least  those  which  are  mineralized 
and  entombed  in  the  rocks,  have  no  connexion  with  the  deluge. 
"  Compare  the  calm  deposit  of  shells  and  the  appearance  of  the 
still  calmer  death  of  the  antediluvian  vegetable  world  with  the 
bowlder  stones,  the  gravel  and  the  disjointed,  dispersed  and  frac- 
tured osteology  of  the  diluvial  deposits,  and  it  will  be  allowed 
that  there  is  not  the  slightest  analogy  between  these  classes  of 
events."  (Sir  A.  Creighton  in  Annals  of  Philos.  Feb.  1825.) 
We  repeat,  that  it  is  a  great  error  to  attribute  the  remains  and 
bodies  of  plants  and  animals,  found  usually  in  a  mineralized  con- 
dition in  the  mountains,  and  rock  masses,  often  occupying  exten- 
sive districts  and  sometimes  whole  countries,  and  unfathomable 
depths,  to  the  punitive  deluge.  In  past  times,  this  error  was  quite 
universal,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  was  so,  when  we  recol- 
lect that  geology,  as  a  regular  and  rational  study,  does  not  claim 
a  date  beyond  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  its  more  accu- 
rate researches  and  reasoning  may  be  considered  as  almost  ex- 
clusively the  offspring  of  the  present  century. 

One  of  the  most  important  results  obtained  by  modern  geolo- 
gy is,  that  it  has  clearly  distinguished  between  the  circumstances, 
object  and  effects  of  the  primitive  abyss  and  of  the  diluvial  ocean ; 
and  no  two  allied  subjects  in  geology  are  capable  of  clearer  and 
more  satisfactory  discrimination.  It  is  true  that  the  youth  of  ge- 
ological science  should  make  us  cautious,  but  on  this  point  our 
march  cannot  be  backward  ;  research  can  never  weaken  the 


ther  at  the  time  of,  or  subsequent  to  their  formation.  The  general  statement  above 
is  not  meant  to  exclude  local,  occasional,  or  even  general  catastrophes,  which  are 
not  inconsistent  with  long  intermediate  periods  of  prevailing  quiet. 


60  TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL. 

proofs  already  obtained,  but  will  undoubtedly  add  constantly  to 
their  number  and  value. 


TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL. 

XXIII.  The  loose  superficial  masses  of  clay,  sand,  gravel, 
loam,  pebbles  and  some  of  the  superficial  rocks  appear  to  have 
been  the  last  in  the  series  of  regular  depositions  ;*  they  are  now 
included  under  the  Tertiary  and  Diluvial  and  Alluvial,  properly 
so  called. 

The  tertiary  comprehends  the  most  recent  members  of  what 
was  until  within  a  few  years,  included  under  the  secondary,  and 
also  the  oldest  members  of  the  former  alluvial. 

The  diluvial  embraces  what  is  conceived  to  belong  to  the  del- 
uge,! and  the  alluvial  is  now  restricted  to  the  deposits,  chiefly 
mechanical,  arising  from  agencies  still  in  operation,  and  which 
have  been  always  active,  such  as  the  weather,  floods^  rain,  frost, 
electricity,  &c.  &c. 

This  threefold  division  has  become  necessary  in  consequence 
of  the  progress  of  discovery.  The  tertiary  division  sustains  very 
nearly  the  same  relation  to  the  secondary,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  diluvial  and  alluvial  on  the  other,  as  the  transition  does  to 
the  primitive  and  secondary.  In  either  case,  we  may  separate 
the  subjects  of  the  division  referred  to,  and  distribute  the  mem- 
bers between  the  two  contiguous  classes,  but  in  both  cases,  a  de- 
gree of  confusion  will  be  the  result. 

In  colloquial  language,  it  is  not  very  important  to  distinguish 
between  diluvial  and  alluvial.  It  may  be  sufficient,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  conversation,  to  speak  of  loose  masses  generally  as  allu- 
vial ;  but  in  accurate  geological  discussions,  it  is  important  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  effects  of  causes  now  in  operation  and  of 
those  which  belong  to  catastrophes,  of  which  the  occurrence  of  the 


*  Always  excepting  of  course,  the  volcanic  and  ignigenous  formations,  which  are 
irregular  and  obey  no  settled  law  of  succession. 

t  Or  deluges,  for  there  may  have  been  repeated  physical  events  of  this  kind,  more 
or  less  extensive,  although  there  has  been  only  one  general  vindictive  one  and  only 
one  general  deluge  since  the  creation  of  man. 


TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL.  ftl 

last  is  evinced,  by  the  entire  appearance  of  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  by  the  record  of  sacred  history  and  the  traditions,  mythol- 
ogy, fables  and  poems  of  most  heathen  nations,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, savage  and  civilized.* 

It  has  been  usual  to  speak  of  the  great  sandy,  gravelly  and 
clayey  district  of  the  southern  American  states,  extending  from 
the  ocean  to  the  high  country,  as  alluvial ;  but  in  fact,  a  large 
part  of  it  is  tertiary  and  diluvial,  and  only  a  small  part  is  strictly 
alluvial. 

It  is  true,  that  in  a  scientific  view,  the  production  or  prepara- 
tion and  transportation  of  the  materials  of  the  alluvial  and  dilu- 
vial, is  due  to  the  same  general  class  of  causes,  but  the  scale  of 
operations  is  widely  different,  and  the  diluvial  are  attributable  to 
catastrophes,  sudden,  short,  violent  and  occasional — the  alluvial 
to  causes  comparatively  or  generally  feeble,  although  sometimes 
violent,  and  always  in  operation. 

XXIV.  In  these  looser  superficial  deposits,  we  find  most  of  the 
remains  of  the  larger  and  more  perfect  animals,  and  it  is  rare 
that  trees}  and  their  larger  members  arc  found  in  deposits  of  a 
more  ancient  date.  This  epoch  embraces  the  period  of  the  very 
termination  of  the  redemption  of  the  earth  from  the  first  watery 
abyss. 

It  appears  necessary  here  to  remark  that  the  last  operations  of 
the  primitive  ocean  were,  in  all  probability,  similar  to  those  of  our 
present  oceans.  Indeed,  had  not  the  deluge  supervened  and  in- 
troduced, along  with  these,  a  new  set  of  effects,  it  might  not  per- 
haps have  been  possible  to  distinguish  between  the  last  operations 
of  the  first  ocean  and  the  daily  effects  of  the  present ;  or  rather,  the 
latter  would,  as  far  as  we  can  understand,  have  been  little  else 
than  a  continuation  of  the  former.  Indeed,  a  certain  part  of  the 

*  See  an  abstract  of  these  facts  in  the  Edingurgh  Encyclopedia,  article  Deluge. 

t  Trees  and  their  branches  and  roots  are  sometimes  found  in  the  coal  formations 
in  the  sand  stones,  in  the  lias  limestone,  &c.  which  proves  that  the  gigantic  veg- 
etables were  sometimes  embraced  in  the  depositions  that  were  formed  in  the  la- 
ter periods  of  the  subsidence  of  the  primitive  ocean,  as  well  as  at  epochs  still  more 
recent,  some  of  which  come  down  to  our  own  time. 


62  TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL. 

effects  of  the  primitive  ocean  is  liable  to  be  confounded  both 
with  those  of  the  present  and  of  the  diluvial  ocean. 

The  discrimination  is  however  not  important,  and  these  re- 
marks are  introduced  merely  to  qualify  the  statements  already 
made,  respecting  the  general  dissimilarity  between  the  phenom- 
ena of  these  different  periods. 

The  similar  effects  to  which  allusion  is  now  made,  are  the  gen- 
eral production  of  debris  and  wreck,  but  chiefly  of  rounded,  wa- 
ter worn  stones  and  bowlders. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  are  now  produced,  or  their 
forms  modified  by  the  moving  waters  of  the  surface  of  our  planet. 

No  one  who,  on  the  sea  shore,  has  observed  the  incessant  lash- 
ing of  the  waves,  and  has  listened  to  the  hollow  hum  of  the  stones 
and  pebbles  rubbing  against  each  other,  with  ceaseless  friction, 
can  doubt,  that  rounded,  water  worn  pebbles  are  now  every  mo- 
ment forming ;  and  were  they  found  no  where  else,  except  on  the 
shores,  and  in  moving  waters,  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  as- 
signing their  origin  generally  to  this  cause.  But  rounded  stones, 
water  worn  pebbles  and  bowlders  are  found,  in  every  country,  on 
the  surface,  and  in  the  soil,  and  in  regions  the  most  remote  from 
the  ocean.  This  of  course  proves  the  universal  prevalence  of 
the  waters. 

Why  not  attribute  the  formation  of  the  inland  water  worn 
stones  to  the  diluvial  ocean  ?  The  answer  which  must  be  re- 
turned is,  that  the  time  is  too  short  for  the  process  of  grinding 
down,  which  would  occupy  a  very  long  period.  The  deluge 
could,  and  evidently  did  transport  and  deposit  immense  masses  of 
these  ruins,  where  we  now  find  them;  but  it  was  not  possible  that 
it  could,  in  so  limited  a  period,  have  effected  much,  in  grinding 
down  the  angular  fragments  of  quartz  and  of  other  hard  stones,  in- 
to ovoidal  and  globular  pebbles,  and  bowlders.  That  effect  ap- 
pears to  have  been,  principally,  the  work  of  the  primitive  ocean, 
which  was  not  limited  to  a  short  time. 

XXV.  Bones,  single  or  connected,  and  even  entire  skeletons 
of  the  larger  animals,  (as  the  mammoth  or  mastodon,  and  other 
varieties  of  elephants,  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippopotamus,  the  tapir. 


TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL.  63 

elks,*  deer,  bears,  horses,  oxen,  whales,  fyc.)  are  found  abundant- 
ly in  many  countries,  buried  in  the  upper  and  looser  strata. 

Trees  and  their  members,  and  even  entire  forests  are  found  in 
similar  situations. 

In  general,  the  bones  and  trees  are  not  mineralized,  but  are 
rather,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  condition  of  grave  bones  or  an- 
cient wood. 

The  bones  could  not  be  found  in  the  older  strata,  if  the 
animals  were  not  in  existence  when  those  strata  were  depos- 
ited. Much  less  could  we  expect  to  find  human  bones  in 
these  strata,  for  man,  evidently,  was  not  created  till  the  earth 
was  reduced  to  complete  order,  and  many  generations  of  ani- 
mals and  plants,  had  lived  and  died ;  depositing  their  remains 
in  the  rocks,  whose  formation  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
existence  of  the  animals  or  plants,  or  immediately  subsequent  to 
it,  or  whose  materials  were  accumulated,  by  catastrophes  that 
also  overwhelmed  the  organized  beings. 

Few  or  no  gigantic  animals,  of  any  description,  are  found  in  the 
solid  strata,  below  the  liast  limestone.  In  that  rock,  and  also  in 
other  strata,  above  and  perhaps  below,  there  have  been  found, 
within  a  few  years,  in  England  and  elsewhere,  gigantic  oviparous 
animals  of  the  saurian  or  lizard  family:  their  remains  indicate  ani- 
mals of  twenty,  forty,  fifty,  and  seventy  feet  or  more  in  length. | 
They  were  amphibious,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  that 
when  only  the  mountains  and  higher  hills  of  England,  were  re- 
deemed from  water,  and  stood  out  as  islands,  these  enormous 
animals,  closely  allied  to  the  crocodile  and  alligator,  that  is  to 
say,  being  of  the  same  genus,  but  of  different  species,  swam  and 
sported  about,  in  the  inter-insular  waters  of  primitive  Britain. 


*  The  cervus  megaceros  (Irish  elk,)  is  probably  extinct,  and  perhaps  some  oth- 
er cotemporary  species. 

t  A  local  name,  used  in  England.    The  hydraulic  lime  of  New  York,  is  a  lias. 

t  In  the  interesting  collection  of  G.  W.  Featherstonhaugh,  Esq.  in  New  York, 
there  is  a  fine  head  of  one  of  these  ancient  animals,  and  a  very  instructive  series  of 
specimens,  illustrating  the  history  of  the  bones  found  in  the  caverns,  and  in  the  dilu- 
vial formations  of  England. 

9 


64  TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL. 

Probably  no  land  quadrupeds  are  found  in  any  formation  ear- 
lier than  the  tertiary.* 

This  is  easily  understood.  Until  this  period,  there  was  not  dry 
land  enough  for  terrestrial  quadrupeds.  It  was  evidently  a  period 
more  advanced,  than  that  which  produced  the  ancient  croco- 
diles ;  more  land  was  uncovered,  but  a  multitude  of  natural  ba- 
sins were  still  full  of  water,  forming  lakes,  and  as  the  strata  which 
they  now  present,  were  in  the  course  of  being  deposited,  various 
quadrupeds,  fortuitously  conveyed  into  the  water,  or  perhaps 
drowned  by  accident  or  by  partial  inundations,  became  solidified, 
and  their  remains  are  now  found  in  the  basins  of  Paris  and  Lon- 
don, and  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  In  general,  their  bones  are  not 
mineralized,  or  but  partially  so,  and  rarely  are  they  perfectly 
changed.  They  are  also  much  less  frequent,  than  the  marine 
animal  remains  of  the  earlier  strata,  probably,  both  because  the 
animals  were  much  less  numerous,  and  because  the  circumstan- 
ces attending  their  existence  and  death,  were  far  less  favorable 
to  their  inhumation. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  also,  that  in  the  very  strata  in  which 
they  are  contained,  the  relics  of  water-born  animals  are  very  nu- 
merous. It  is  believed,  by  Cuvier  and  Brongniart,  whose  elabo- 
rate investigation  of  the  Paris  strata,  has  been  several  years  be- 
fore the  world,  that  there  were  successive  periods,  in  which  the 
waters  produced,  alternately  and  successively,  marine  and  fresh- 
water shells,  but  perhaps  our  acquaintance  with  these  ancient 
animals,  does  not  enable  us  to  decide  positively  on  this  point. 

The  most  remarkable  of  the  solid  strata  of  the  tertiary,  are 
the  calcairc  grassier  of  the  French,  millstone,  sandstones  and 
gypsum  ;  and  among  the  materials  that  are  not  solidified,  numer- 
ous beds  of  clay,  marie  and  sand. 

The  tertiary  formations  having  been  distinguished  only  within 
a  few  years,  have,  as  yet,  been  only  partially  examined,  and  al- 
most exclusively,  in  France  and  England.  There  can  be  no 

*  See  a  remarkable  fact — American  Journal  of  Science,  Vol.  II.  p.  146. 


TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL.  65 

doubt,  as  already  observed,  that  much  of  the  great  alluvial,  as  it 
has  been  called,  of  the  United  States,  is  really  tertiary.*  The 
tertiary  passes  into  the  diluvial  and  alluvial,  by  almost  impercept- 
ible shades,  and  as  it  is  not  easy,  perhaps  it  is  not  important,  to 
draw  the  line  of  separation  with  perfect  accuracy. 

It  has  been  generally  admitted,  that  no  viviparous  quadrupeds, 
nor  any  vertebrated  animals,!  except  amphibious  ones,  are  found 
lower  down  than  the  chalk.  Professor  Buckland,  has,  however, 
discovered  in  the  Stonesfield  slate,  near  Oxford,  the  bones  of 
birdsj  and  of  a  species  of  opossum.  Few  large  terrestrial  quad- 
rupeds are  found  in  the  strata  beneath  the  diluvial  and  alluvial. 

Of  course  these  could  not  exist,  in  any  great  numbers,  until 
the  land  was  chiefly  uncovered,  and  their  inhumation  is,  we  pre- 
sume, to  be  ascribed,  with  few  exceptions,  to  the  deluge  of  Noah. 

XXVI.  Many  revolutions  more  or  less  extensive,  the  result  of 
earthquakes,  volcanos,  tempests  and  even  deluges,  partial  or  gene- 
ral, and  perhaps  of  other  causes,  now  unknown,  may  have  preceded 
the  formation  of  man.  Of  these  revolutions,  there  is  abundant 
evidence  in  the  strata,  which  as  already  stated,  are  often  contor- 
ted, elevated,  depressed,  dislocated  and  blended,  and  the  same 
relics  are  asserted  to  be  found  in  the  strata  of  the  same  kind  re- 
peated at  different  depths,  and  separated  by  other  intervening 
beds  of  rocks,  containing  also  in  many  instances,  their  own  pecu- 
liar remains.  These  facts  if  established  by  sufficient  evidence, 
prove  the  existence  of  successive  generations  of  these  beings  and 
their  submersion  and  inhumation  by  the  alternate  and  successive 
prevalence  of  the  waters. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  creation  of  animals 
and  plants  was  successive ;  not  by  equivocal  generation — not  by 
atomic  action,  but  by  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty. 


*  See  two  excellent  papers  on  this  subject,  by  Prof.  Vanuxem  and  Dr.  Morton,  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  Vol.  VI. 

t  For  a  notice  of  a  vertebrated  animal  five  feet  long,  found  in  old  red  sandstone, 
see  American  Journal,  Vol.  II.  p.  146  and  Vol.  III.  p.  247. 

t  Birds  are  supposed  to  have  been  found  in  the  English  lias. 


66  TERTIARY,  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL. 

The  waters,  at  different  periods,  appear  to  have  been  adapted 
to  the  support  of  different  races,  and  therefore,  their  remains 
were  successively  solidified.  When  this  happened,  it  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  suppose  that  the  animals  of  a  particular  race  were  all 
extinguished  ;  a  multitude  of  them  were  entombed,  as  is  proved 
by  their  remains ;  but  individuals  probably  survived,  in  sufficient 
numbers  to  continue  the  respective  species;  in  the  mean  time, 
other  animals  were  created,  and  new  races  were  petrified  in  the 
forming  rocks:  again  perhaps  the  diminished  race  prevailed  anew, 
and  becoming  again  the  tenants  of  the  waters,  presented  their 
relics  to  be  solidified  in  a  new  deposition,  and  so  on  in  succession. 

As  to  plants,  it  has  been  already  remarked  that  their  relics  (the 
coal  formations  excepted,)  are  far  less  numerous  than  those  of 
animals.  It  is  in  no  way  surprising  that  their  creation  should 
have  been  successive,  and  associated  with  different  rock  form- 
ations, and  if  the  same  plants  occur  in  successive  repetitions 
of  the  same  or  of  different  formations,  their  seeds  or  roots 
might  have  been  preserved  in  the  waters  or  transported  from 
other  places. 

It  is  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  natural  laws,  that  the  particu- 
lar state  of  things  which  attended  a  particular  rocky  deposition, 
should  have  been  such  also,  when  the  same  kind  of  rock  came  to 
be  deposited  again,  as  to  favor  the  production  of  the  same  ani- 
mal or  vegetable  races  from  the  germs,  seeds,  roots  or  individuals 
that  had  been  preserved.  The  temperature  of  the  great  waters 
under  the  same  circumstances,  is  liable  to  little  variation,  which 
would  greatly  favor  a  similarity  or  identity  of  productions. 

In  the  same  latitudes  there  is  now,  on  the  earth,  a  great  regular- 
ity in  the  vegetable  species,  and,  in  a  less  rigorous  degree,  in  the 
animal  races. 

But  the  geologist  is  not  obliged  to  remove  or  to  solve  every 
difficulty,  however  gratifying  it  may  be  to  effect  this  object.  His 
first  duty  is  to  ascertain  correctly,  and  to  describe  faithfully,  the 
great  facts,  and  if  they  are  inexplicable  it  is  not  his  fault  Every 
thing  in  nature  will  not  have  been  explained  till  time  is  no  more. 


TERTIARY  DILUVIAL  AND  ALLUVIAL.  67 

In  the  present  case  however,  we  are  quite  sure  that  these  interes- 
ting relics  are  not  referrible  to  the  deluge ;  that  short,  transient  and 
violent  catastrophe;  and  it  is  wholly  incredible  and  inadmissible, 
that  the  plants  and  animals  were  made  in  the  rocks.  They  are 
not  a  lusus  natures,  and  no  solution  presents  itself  to  the  writer, 
but  the  one  that  has  been  given. 

XXVII.  In  most  of  the  earlier  strata  that  have  been  described, 
the  animal  remains  are  mineralized  or  petrified,  that  is  they  are 
changed  into  rock  or  stone  or  other  mineral  matter,  or  at  least 
enclosed  in  it ;  they  form  part  of  the  solid  strata ;  they  are  found 
at  great  depths,  with  vast  piles  of  strata,  and  mountains,  often 
of  different  kinds  of  rocks,  lying  over  them ;  they  extend  in  ma- 
ny instances,  hundreds  of  miles  in  continuity ;  their  number 
exceeds  all  estimation ;  and  for  all  these  reasons  it  is  obvious, 
that  their  deposition  and  that  of  the  rocks  in  which  they  are 
found  must  have  occupied  a  great  length  of  time. 

The  creation  of  the  planet  was  no  doubt  instantaneous,  as  re- 
gards the  materials,  but  the  arrangement,  at  least  of  the  crust,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  gradual.  As  a  subject  either  of  moral  or 
physical  contemplation,  we  can  say  nothing  better,  than  that  it 
was  the  good  pleasure  of  God  that  this  world  should  be  called 
into  existence ;  but,  it  seems  also  to  have  been  his  pleasure,  that 
the  arrangement,  by  which  it  was  to  become  a  fit  habitation  for 
man,  was  to  be  progressive.* 

This  is  in  strict  analogy  with  the  common  course  of  things  in 
the  physical,  moral  and  intellectual  world.  The  human  mind, 
the  bodily  powers,  the  inception  and  growth  of  the  animal  and 
vegetable  races,  the  seasons,  seed  time  and  harvest,  science  and 
arts,  wealth,  civilization,  national  power  and  character,  and  a 
thousand  things  more,  evince,  that  progression  is  stamped  upon 
almost  every  thing,  and  that  most  things  reach  perfection,  not 
by  a  single  leap,  but  rather  by  a  slow,  although  sure  course. 


*  It  is  a  most  remarkable  fact,  that  every  great  feature  in  the  structure  of  the 
planet,  corresponds  with  the  order  of  the  events  narrated  hi  sacred  history. 


68  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

The  gradual  preparation  of  this  planet  for  its  ultimate  destina- 
tion presents  therefore  no  anomaly,  and  need  not  excite  our  sur- 
prise. 

THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

XXVIII.  There  is  decisive  evidence  that  not  further  back  than 
a  few  thousand  years,  an  universal  deluge*  swept  the  surface  of 
this  globe,  and  produced  certain  alterations  in  its  physiognomy. 

SUGGESTIONS    AS    TO    A    POSSIBLE    PHYSICAL    CAUSE. 

As  the  immediate  cause  of  the  deluge  was  the  will  of  the  deity, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  prove  that  he  who  created  the  planet,  and 
covered  it  with  the  primitive  abyss,  could  again  bring  over  it  a 
world  of  waters. 

In  a  moral  view  then,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  was  the  ordi- 
nance of  heaven. 

But  as  God,  although  able  to  effect  the  object  by  the  fiat  of  his 
command  alone,  usually  works  by  means,  it  is  very  proper  to  en- 
quire if  there  are  any  natural  powers  which  might  be  employed 
to  deluge  the  earth. 

The  rain  of  heaven  is  mentioned  as  having  descended  for  forty 
days  and  forty  nights,  and  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  are 
stated  to  have  been  broken  up.  It  seems  necessary  therefore  to 
infer,  not  only  that  a  deluge  descended  from  the  atmosphere,  but 
that  it  burst  forth  with  violence,  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 
In  a  physical  view,  such  an  event  would  seem  to  be  indispensable, 
as  the  atmosphere  could  discharge  only  the  waters  that  had  as- 
cended into  it,  by  evaporation,  unless  we  imagine  that  water  was 
created  for  the  purpose  in  the  atmosphere,  or  brought  into  it  from 
other  regions,  either  of  which  would  be  miraculous. 


*  The  deluge  of  Noah  as  already  stated,  was  however,  totally  distinct  in  its  effects, 
from  those  which  we  have  attributed  to  the  primeval  waters  of  the  great  abyss,  ex- 
cept, that  there  may  have  been  some  similarity  near  the  termination  of  the  primitive 
deluge,  when  its  waters  would  most  abound  with  mechanical  effects  and  deposits. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  69 

Although  the  scriptures  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  text  book 
in  physics,  their  allusion  to  the  rupture  of  the  fountains  of  the 
great  deep  seems  not  to  be  made  without  meaning. 

When  referring  to  the  retiring  of  the  first  or  primitive  ocean,  a 
suggestion  was  made  as  to  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  cav- 
erns in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.     It  is  true  the  fact  cannot  be 
proved,  but  in  a  sphere  of  eight  thousand  miles  in  diameter,  it 
would  appear  in  no  way  extraordinary,  that  many  cavities  may 
exist,  which  collectively,  or  even  singly,  may  well  contain  much 
more  than  all  our  oceans,  seas,  and  other  superficial  waters,  none 
of  which  are  probably  more  than  a  few  miles  in  depth.     If  these 
cavities  communicate  in  any  manner  with  the  ocean,  and  are  (as 
if  they  exist  at  all,  they  probably  are,)  filled  with  water,  there  ex- 
ist, we  conceive,  agents  sufficiently  powerful  to  expel  the  water  of 
these  cavities,  and  thus  to  deluge,  at  any  time  the  dry  land. 
These  agents  are  the  aerial  fluids,  the  vapors  and  the  gases — 
whose  competency  to  any  and  every  degree  of  energy,  which  a 
given  mechanical  movement  may  require,  is  abundantly  exhibited, 
in  the  rending  force  of  gun-powder,  and  of  the  other  still  more 
potent  explosive  chemical  compositions,  and  in  the  phenomena 
of  earthquakes  and  volcanos,  whose  mechanical  effects,  depend 
principally,  upon  the  sudden  and  abundant  evolution  and  great 
expansion,  by  heat,  of  aerial  bodies.     These  bodies,  suddenly 
evolved,  (especially  steam  at  a  high  temperature,)  and  subjected 
to  pressure  and  resistance,  are  sufficient,  not  merely  to  propel 
cannon  balls  and  bombs,  to  burst  rocks  and  to  explode  mines — 
they  can  rend  mountains — they  can  shake  them  from  their  bases 
— and  cause  continents  and  the  globe  itself  to  vibrate  and  tremble. 
If  then,  there  were  occasion  to  elevate  a  column  of  water  even 
six  miles  in  height,  above  the  present  ocean  level,  so  that  it  should 
transcend  the  highest  mountains;  aerial  fluids,  aided  by  internal 
heat,  would  be  equal  to  the  effort.     Should  they  be  disengaged, 
abundantly,  in  the  vast  subterraneous  and  subaqueous  cavities, 
they  would,  of  course,  occupy  the  roof  or  vaults,  and  would 
therefore  expel  the  water,  which  we  suppose   they  may  con- 
tain, and  this  water  rising,  and  spreading  itself  over  the  dry  land, 


70  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

might  submerge  the  continents,  more  or  less  completely.  In  short 
if  heat  were  concerned,  it  would  be  merely  a  case  of  steam  <>r  com- 
pressed air,  acting  to  raise  a  column  of  water,  as  in  a  fire-engine. 
If  it  be  objected,  that  the  pressure  would  split  the  incumbent  earth, 
we  answer  that  it  would  do  so  did  not  its  counteracting  pressure, 
arising  from  a  specific  gravity  at  least  two  or  three  times  greater 
than  of  water,*  resist,  with  even  superfluous  energy,  and  the 
overflowing  water  would  add  to  the  pressure. 

It  will  be  found  that  to  cover  the  highest  mountains,  existing  at 
this  time  upon  the  earth,  no  more  water  would  be  required  than 
is  sufficient  to  occupy  a  cavity  whose  cubical  contents  are  equal 
to  about  ¥£j  part  of  those  of  the  globe.  If  the  cavity  were  in 
the  centre  and  were  all  in  one,  its  diameter  would  be  nearly  one 
thousand  two  hundred  and  seventy-seven  miles,  extending  six  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  and  a  half  miles  each  side  of  the  centre, 
and  of  course  leaving  over  three  thousand  three  hundred  miles 
for  the  thickness  of  the  containing  shell.t 

If  the  void  space  were  distributed  in  various  parts  of  the  globe, 
of  course  the  thickness  of  the  walls  must  depend  upon  the  prox- 
imity to  the  surface ;  but,  a  few  leagues  or  perhaps  miles  of  thick- 
ness would  be  sufficient  to  give  the  strength,  requisite,  to  resist 
the  pressure. 

A  force  five  times  as  great  as  that  used  with  safety  by  Mr.  Per- 
kins, in  his  celebrated  experiments  with  his  generator,  would  raise 
a  column  of  water,  and  of  course  an  ocean,  higher  than  the  top 
of  the  Himmaleh  mountains.]: 

If  volcanic  or  internal  heat  in  the  earth  should  create  steam,  suf- 
ficiently abundant  and  elastic,  to  sustain  this  enormous  pressure, 
would  it  not  throw  the  whole  ocean  into  ebullition  ?  It  would  cause 
the  parts  contiguous  to  the  fire  to  become  red  hot,  and  to  assume 
the  elastic  form,  or  there  would  be  no  power  generated,  but  wa- 

*  Possibly  even  much  greater,  according  to  the  deductions  of  Masketyne  and  Hut- 
ton  on  the  specific  gravity  of  the  earth, 
t  Private  communication  to  the  author, 
t  Measuring  from  the  surface  of  the  present  ocean. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  71 

ter  is  so  bad  a  conductor  of  heat  that  the  ocean  surrounding  the 
globe,  and  at  a  distance  from  the  internal  heated  cavities,  might 
remain  cold.  A  similar  course  of  reasoning,  will  apply  to  the  ex^ 
trication  of  gas. 

How  would  such  an  ocean  elevated  by  aerial  agency,  ever  de- 
scend ?  By  condensation  of  the  steam  and  absorption  of  the  gas, 
on  the  cessation  of  the  heat. 

Would  not  gas,  and  much  more  vapor,  under  a  pressure  of 
perhaps  many  miles  of  water  be  of  course  condensed  by  the 
force,*  or  be  prevented  from  ever  becoming  aeriform  ?  It  would 
if  cold,  but  igneous  agency  has  no  known  limits  and  would,  in  a 
given  degree  of  intensity,  counteract  and  overcome  the  conden* 
sing  effects  of  pressure. 

Would  not  gas  or  vapor,  as  the  earth  revolved,  escape,  by 
blowing  out  of  the  orifice,  connecting  the  cavity  with  the  surface  ? 
It  would  do  so,  if  the  channel  had  a  particular  direction  in  rela- 
tion to  the  axis  of  the  earth,  but  if  parallel,  and  still  more  if  tor- 
tuous, (which  corresponds  with  what  we  know  of  the  inlets  to 
caverns,)  the  contained  aerial  matter  or  most  of  it  would  remain 
imprisoned.  It  is  not  pretended  that  the  method  here  sketched 
was  the  one  actually  employed ;  it  is  sufficient  for  the  present 
purpose  to  shew  that  it  is  physically  possible. 

Have  we  any  case  of  analogous  facts,  which  may  redeem  our 
supposition  from  the  appearance  of  hypothesis,  invented  for  the 
occasion?  We  have  such  a  case  :  it  is  that  of  volcanic  eruption. 
According  to  Humboldt,  lava  sometimes  issues,  at  an  elevation  of 
eighteen  thousand  feet.t  As  we  are  wishing  to  apply  a  measure 
to  the  supposed  power,  we  will  take  this  extreme  case,  for  the 
very  reason,  that  it  shews  the  extent  of  the  power,  (not  its  extent 
in  possibility,  but  as  far  as  it  has  been  hitherto  ascertained.) 
__ . — _  . 

*  As  Mr.  Faraday  has  shown  that  many  of  the  gases  are  actually  condensed  by 
the  conjoined  effects  of  pressure  and  cold. 

t  The  volcanic  mountains  in  Hawaii,  (Owhyhee.)  Mouna  Roa  and  Mouna  Keg, 
each  estimated  to  be  over  eighteen  thousand  feet  high,  evince  that  this  statement  is 
not  exaggerated.— Am.  Jour.  Vol.  II.  pa.  2.  Cotopaxi  is  another  example. 


72  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

Melted  lava,  especially  under  the  pressure  of  so  many  thou- 
sand feet  of  its  own  fluid  substance,  may  be  estimated  to 
have  the  specific  gravity  of  at  least  3.  water  being  1.  Conse- 
quently, a  power  which  could  raise  lava  eighteen  thousand  feet, 
would  raise  water  fifty-four  thousand  ;  this  would  cover  the  Him- 
maleh  mountains,  and  leave  twenty-eight  thousand  feet,  (about 
five  miles  and  a  third,)  for  the  depth,  from  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
of  the  cavity  where  the  power  might  be  exerted. 

But  this  is  not  all.  It  is  incredible  that  such  volcanic  moun- 
tains as  Mouna  Kea  and  Mouna  Roa  in  Owhyee,  eighteen  thou- 
sand feet  or  more  high  ;  TenerifTe  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  ; 
Cotopaxi  twenty  thousand,  three  hundred  and  twenty  feet,  all 
raised  by  volcanic  eruptions,  could  have  the  laboratory,  from 
which  the  power  and  the  lava  issue,  at  a  smaller  depth  under  the 
surface,  than  that  by  which  these  mountain  rise  above  it.  With 
any  thickness  of  roof  less  than  this,  the  whole  covering  must  be 
blown  to  atoms,  by  the  tremendous  effort  which  raises  the  lava. 

Take  here  again  the  extreme  case,  Cotopaxi  twenty  thousand, 
three  hundred  and  twenty  feet  high :  lava  of  sp.  gr.  3.  raised  to 
this  height,  would  imply  a  power,  that  would  raise  water  sixty 
thousand,  nine  hundred  and  sixty  feet,  measuring  only  from  the 
level  of  the  sea ;  but,  if  the  cavern,  from  which  the  lava  issues, 
is  as  deep  in  the  earth  as  the  mountain  is  high  above  it,  the  pow- 
er exerted  would  raise  water  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  thou- 
sand, nine  hundred  and  twenty  feet,  or  between  twenty-one  and 
twenty-two  miles.  It  will  be  observed,  that  the  power  which  as 
we  know,  actually  raises  the  lava,  is  the  same,  that  we  suppose, 
may  be  employed  to  raise  the  water,  and  this  power  is  actually 
exerted  in  caverns  deep  seated  in  the  earth,  for  it  is  incredible 
that  a  mountain  that  has  itself  been  raised  by  volcanic  eruptions, 
and  whose  entire  substance  is  congealed  lava,  should  contain  the 
cavities  from  which  floods  of  lava  are  still  made  to  flow,  age  after 
age,  for  the  mountain  would  explode  with  its  own  throes  and  con- 
vulsions, as  that  of  Sumbawa  in  the  island  of  Timor,  did,  not 
many  years  since.  We  have  proved  therefore,  that  there  "are 
caverns  in  the  earth,  where  igneous  agency  is  exerted,  and  suf- 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  73 

ficient  power  is  generated,  to  raise  all  the  water  that  would  be 
required  to  deluge  the  mountains. 

Still,  we  do  not  affirm  that  this  was  actually  the  modus  operan- 
di;  but  merely,  that  the  hypothesis  is  consistent  with  physical 
laws,  because  the  very  case  which  we  have  supposed,  is  a  frequent 
occurrence,  only  the  fluid  raised  is  molten  rock,  instead  of  water. 
We  forbear  to  push  our  supposition  to  the  extreme,  by  shewing 
that  it  is  probable,  that  volcanic  cavities  are  often  much  deeper 
than  we  have  stated — otherwise,  the  volcanic  mountains  might  be 
in  danger  of  falling  in,  as  the  ancient  dome  of  Kirauea  probably 
has  done ;  and  it  is  very  difficult  otherwise  to  conceive,  how  vol- 
canos  communicate  with  each  other  under  ground,  and  how  the 
earthquakes  which  they  generate,  are  transmitted  even  to  other 
continents. 

We  forbear  from  stating  other  hypotheses  which  have  been  or 
might  be  suggested ;  such  as  that  of  the  approximation  of  a 
comet,  or  of  other  foreign  planetary  influence. 

XXIX.  The  deluge  of  Noah  was  an  exterminating  and  puni- 
tive infliction ;  sudden  in  its  occurrence,  short  in  its  duration,  and 
violent  in  its  effects. 

The  immense,  and  universally  diffused  masses  of  sand,  clay, 
loam,  gravel,  pebbles,  bowlder  stones,  inhumed  wood  and  forests, 
bones  and  skeletons  of  gigantic,  as  well  as  of  smaller  animals,  and 
the  vast  cemeteries  of  animal  remains  discovered  in  caverns,  owe 
their  preservation,  and  generally,  (except  the  last,  viz.  the  bones 
in  caverns,)  their  present  position,  to  the  overwhelming  destruc- 
tion of  this  mighty  debacle.  Professor  Buckland,  in  his  ReliquiaB 
Diluvianae,  has  most  ably  illustrated  this  subject ;  and  it  is  ob- 
vious, that  the  former  practice,  of  attributing  the  organized  re- 
mains found  in  the  solid  strata,  to  this  catastrophe,  is  founded  en- 
tirely in  an  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  and  that  no 
man,  at  the  present  period,  who  had  studied  geology  thoroughly, 
would  fall  into  such  an  error. 

That  the  diluvial  ocean  was  equal  to  all  the  violent  effects  now 
attributed  to  it,  can,  we  think,  be  proved,  by  a  little  attention  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  phenomenon. 

10 


74  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

In  stating  these,  I  shall  take  it  for  granted,  that  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count of  the  event,  is  true.  I  would  remind  the  mere  geologist, 
that  the  evidence  of  probable  history,  is  always  admitted  in  the 
statement  and  discussion  of  geological  facts.  In  the  present  in- 
stance, the  history,  without  taking  into  view  its  divine  origin,  bears 
every  mark  of  verisimilitude.  It  is  simple  and  perspicuous,  and  it  is 
also  probable;  because  it  corresponds  with  the  appearances  upon 
the  surface  of  the  earth.  We  need  not  the  history,  in  order  to 
prove  the  occurrence  of  an  universal  deluge.  This  is  sufficiently 
proved,  by  the  vestiges  left  upon  the  globe,  and  geologists  are 
generally  agreed  in  admitting  the  fact. 

The  only  point,  for  the  establishment  of  which  we  need  to  ad- 
vert to  the  history,  is  the  time  which  the  catastrophe  occupied, 
and  particularly,  the  great  divisions  of  this  time,  by  the  ascent, 
the  continuance,  and  the  decline  of  the  waters. 

Another  preliminary  to  the  statements  which  are  to  follow,  is, 
that  the  mountain  ranges  were  the  same  at  the  time  of  the  del- 
uge as  now,  except  that  they  are  not  so  elevated.  That  an  uni- 
versal deluge  has  occurred,  since  the  earth  was  peopled  by  hu- 
man beings,  is  stated  in  a  credible*  history,  namely,  the  Mosaic  ; 
the  traditions,  history,  mythology  and  poetry  of  all  nations, 
contain  allusions  to  the  same  event ;  and  it  being  distinctly  stated 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  implied  in  most  of  the  other  sources  of  in- 
formation just  alluded  to,  that  its  object  was  punitive,  it  of 
course  follows,  that  it  happened  since  the  completion  of  the  se- 
ries of  geological  events,  which  fitted  the  earth  for  the  reception 
of  man.  The  mountains,  being  a  part  of  the  "  great  frame  work" 
of  the  globe,  may  reasonably  be  supposed  to  have  existed  before 
the  deluge  •,  since,  whatever  may  have  been  the  proximate  phys- 
ical causes  of  that  event,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe,  that  on  that 
occasion,  continents  sunk,  or  were  born  from  the  womb  of  the 
deep;  but  on  the  contrary,  there  is  positive  geological  evidence, 
that  the  mountain's  ranges  are  the  same  as  before  the  deluge. 


*  We  speak  of  it  as  credible,  because  it  corresponds  with  physical  appearances; 
this  being  the  point,  essential  to  the  geological  argument. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  75 

Every  thing  in  the  lucid  and  graphic  history  of  the  bible,  leads 
to  the  conclusion,  that  the  waters  rose  till  the  land  was  submer- 
ged, and  not  that  the  continents  subsided  into  the  bosom  of  the 
earth.  If  they  did  subside,  it  must  have  been  all  hollow  be- 
neath them  before ;  but  granting  that  they  sunk  into  cavities, 
what  power  raised  the  new  continents,*  or  before  sustained  the  old? 

RISE  OF  THE  WATERS. 

Taking  it  for  granted,  that  the  antediluvian  mountains  were 
the  same  as  the  present,  but  sometvhat  higher,  and  that  agreeably 

*  Mr.  Penn.  in  his  Comparative  Estimate  of  the  Mineral  and  Mosaic  Geologies, 
(second  edition,)  has  stated  it  as  his  opiuion,  that  the  waters  of  the  primitive  abyss 
retired  into  superficial  cavities  scooped  out  for  them,  by  the  breaking  up  and  sink- 
ing of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  or  of  as  much  of  it  as  was  necessary  for  that  purpose  ; 
thus  forming  the  bed  of  the  ocean  and  seas,  but,  as  he  supposes  the  primitive  ocean 
to  have  been  withdrawn  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  and  maintains  that  there  was  no 
such  thing  as  formation  or  progress  in  the  deposition  of  the  primitive  rocks,  but  that 
all  their  crystals  and  other  constituent  parts  were  created  at  once,  as  we  now  see 
them,  no  reason  appears  why  the  planet  was  submersed  at,  all,  and  certainly  none 
why  the  great  waters  were  so  rapidly  withdrawn.  Mr.  Penn,  although  strenuously 
opposed  to  the  admission  of  any  more  time  before  the  creation  of  man  than  what  is 
commonly  allowed,  is  still  so  much  impressed  with  the  utter  impossibility  of  attributing 
the  mineralized  organic  remains  and  the  fragmentary  rocks  of  the  globe  to  the  tran- 
sient catastrophe  of  the  deluge,  that  he  resorts  to  a  supposition  which  appears  quite 
original. 

Believing  the  organized  remains  to  have  been  produced  and  petrified  in  the  bosom 
of  the  oceans  and  seas,  as  they  existed  between  the  creation  of  man  and  the  deluge, 
occupying  a  space  of  1656  years,  he  supposes  that  when  the  deluge  came,  the  then 
existing  continents  were  also  broken  up  and  plunged  into  the  bowels  of  the  globe, 
and  not  only  so,  but  that  cavities  were  formed  over  these  sunken  continents  so  deep 
that  the  seas  and  oceans  were  drained  off  from  their  former  beds,  running  by  subsi- 
dence into  these  new  cavities,  and  thus  disclosing  the  bottom  of  the  former  seas  and 
oceans,  which  form  the  continents  of  our  present  habitable  world. 

As  this  theory  supposes,  in  order  to  provide  for  the  withdrawing  of  the  two  oceans, 
namely,  the  primitive  and  the  diluvial,  that,  first  and  last,  the  entire  crust  of  the 
planet,  both  the  dry  land  and  the  submarine  must  have  been  broken  up  and  sunk, 
we  are  of  course  led  to  enquire,  whether  there  was  a  general  cavity  beneath  the  en- 
tire crust  of  the  planet,  (as  a  little  globe  is  sometimes,  in  our  artificial  apparatus, 
supported  within  the  encircling  rings  of  an  armillary  sphere,  or  like  a  nut  loose  in  its 
shell,  or  as  the  loose  kernel  (noyau)  often  included  in  the  argillaceous  iron  ore,  call- 
ed cetite.) 


76  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

to  the  scripture  history,  they  were  all  covered;  we  have  the  meas- 
ure of  the  altitude  of  the  flood  ;  and  from  the  same  history,  we 
learn  also  the  time  in  which  it  rose. 

Supposing  that  the  highest  elevation  was  five  and  a  half  miles ; 
as  it  was  forty  days  in  rising,  it  rose  nearly  at  the  following  rate,  that 
is,  a  foot  in  two  minutes,  thirty  feet  in  an  hour,  one  hundred  and 
eighty-one  feet  in  the  time  of  a  common  flood  orebb  tide,three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-two  feet  in  the  entire  time  of  the  flux  and  reflux  of  a 
tide,  and  seven  hundred  and  twenty-six  feel  in  twenty  four  hours. 
This  is  upon  the  supposition  that  the  waters  rose  upon  the  surface 

If  there  were  such  a  cavity  what  filled  it  before  the  subsidence  ?  What  sustain- 
ed the  encircling  hollow  sphere  in  its  place  ?  If  there  were  no  such  cavities  how 
could  the  continents  sink  ?  If  the  cavities  were  formed  at  the  time  by  convulsions, 
what  became  of  the  displaced  materials  ? 

But,  it  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  these  enquiries ;  for,  the  discoveries  of  Prof. 
Buckland,  as  to  the  antediluvian  caves,  have  proved,  that  the  continents  that  now 
exist  above  water,  are  the  same  that  were  inhabited  before  the  flood.  The  caverns 
that  were  then  tenanted  by  hyenas,  bears,  and  other  wild  animals,  as  their  dens,  pre- 
sent innumerable  specimens  of  their  remains,  and  of  those  of  the  animals,  or  parts  of 
animals,  which  they  dragged  in  for  food,  or  which  sought  in  these  places  a  refuge 
from  the  common  danger;  and  these  remains  are  covered  by  the  diluvial  sediment, 
which  was  floated  into  them,  when  the  waters  were  turbid  with  the  suspended 
mud,  and  thus  these  apparently  trifling  relics  have  been  preserved  to  the  present 
day,  as  memorials  of  that  great  event. 

It  is  impossible  to  give,  on  this  occasion,  even  an  abstract  of  the  details  by  which 
these  indications  are  established.* 

A  diligent  attention  to  the  facts  of  the  same  class  that  have  been  discovered  since 
the  publication  of  the  Reliquiae ;  a  very  careful  re-perusal  of  that  work  for  the  second 
and  third  time,  after  a  full  consideration  of  the  objections  of  those  two  very  acute 
writers,  Mr.  Penn,  an  able  critic,  and  of  Dr.  Fleming,  an  accomplished  naturalist, 
have  left  on  the  mind  of  the  writer  a  conviction,  in  no  degree  impaired,  that  Profes- 
sor Buckland's  opinions  respecting  the  identity  of  the  ante  and  post  diluvian  conti- 
nents are  sound  and  correct.  We  have  been  delighted  with  Dr.  Fleming's  notices 
of  the  history  of  the  animal  races  in  Britain  and  elsewhere,  but  we  still  believe 
that  the  caverns  were  antediluvian,  and  of  course,  that  the  continents  were  not  sunk 
on  that  occasion,  but  drowned  and  ravaged  in  situ. 

Any  thing  rather  than  conviction  was  produced  by  the  effort  of  Mr.  Penn  to  ac- 
count for  limestone  caves  and  their  diluvial  bones,  by  the  strange  imagination,  that 
the  supposed  calcareous  paste  of  the  deluge  had  been  blown  up  into  caverns  by  the 

*  For  an  able  analysis  of  this  work  by  Prof.  Hitchcock,  see  Am.  Jour.  Vol.  VIII- 
pp.  150  and  317. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  77 

of  a  regular  sphere,  in  which  case,  they  would  rise  in  vast  ridgy 
waves,  presenting,  every  where,  much  the  same  appearance  and 
effects.  But  as  the  hills  and  mountains,  over  the  entire  surface  of 
the  land,  would  oppose  barriers  to  the  rise  of  the  water,  the  ra- 
pidity of  the  tides  would  be  much  increased,  and  in  many  situa- 
tions, the  water  would  rise  with  redoubled  force,  and  every  where 
overflow  the  land  with  increased  rapidity. 

In  order  to  appreciate,  justly,  the  effect  of  such  a  tremendous 
rush  of  waters,  we  must  compare  it  not  only  with  common  tides, 
but  with  those  more  violent  ones  with  which  we  are  acquainted. 

"  Between  Matacapa  and  the  North  Cape,  in  the  place  where 
the  great  canal  of  the  river  Amazon  is  most  confined  by  the  isl- 
ands, the  tide  presents  a  singular  phenomenon.  During  the  three 

gases  evolved  during  the  "  immense"  putrefaction  of  the  drowned  and  transported 
elephants  and  other  animals,  involved  in  that  paste,  and  inflating  it  by  the  gases 
produced  during  their  decomposition,  and  that  thus  these  extraordinary  excavations 
were  formed. 

What  blew  up  the  stupendous  caverns  of  Kentucky*  and  other  western  and  south 
western  American  states,  extending  for  miles  into  the  earth,  and  containing  no  bones 
except  a  few  inhumed  skeletons  of  the  aboriginal  Indians  ?  Why  is  there  no  infla- 
tion, around  the  bodies  of  fishes  and  of  larger  animals  whose  remains  are  found  in 
limestone  and  other  rocks  ? 

We  decline  however  to  follow  this  subject,  and  while  we  acknowledge  with 
much  satisfaction,  the  instruction  derived  from  the  study  of  both  Mr.  Penn's  edi- 
tions of  his  learned,  elegant  and  very  interesting  work,  we  must  be  permitted  to  say, 
that  none  of  the  geological  theories  which  he  has  so  ably  combated,  appear  more 
extravagant  than  the  two  to  which  we  have  adverted,  and  no  writer  on  geology  who 
professes  to  be  a  believer  in  the  scriptures,  has  taken  that  liberty  with  the  history, 
which  Mr.  Penn  has  done,  who  does  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  the  four  verses  which 
mention  the  rivers  issuing  from  paradise,  to  be  marginal  interpolations,  because  they 
describe  the  then  existing  rivers  as  being  the  same  that  flowed  there  before  the  deluge. 

To  a  writer  of  such  high  moral  tone,  and  great  mental  power  and  acquirements 
as  Mr.  Penn,  we  would  not  speak  in  the  magisterial  manner,  which,  very  promi- 
nent in  his  first  edition,  but  softened  in  his  second,  would  leave  him  in  such  case, 
little  cause  to  complain. 

But  his  work,  searching  as  it  is,  has  served  the  cause  of  truth,  and  we  feel  obliged 
to  him  for  its  publication,  although  he  has,  in  our  opinion,  left  the  question  between 
the  critics  and  the  geologists  embarrassed  with  all  its  difficulties. 

*  The  mammoth  cave  of  Kentucky  has  been  explored  for  ten  miles,  without  find- 
ing an  end ;  these  caves  are  in  the  ancient  secondary  or  transition  limestone. 


78  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

days  nearest  the  full  and  new  moons,  (the  times  of  the  high  tides,) 
the  sea,  instead  of  employing  nearly  six  hours  to  rise,  attains  its 
highest  elevation  in  the  space  of  one  or  two  minutes.  It  may 
be  supposed,  that  this  is  not  effected  very  quietly :  a  terrific  noise 
is  heard,  at  the  distance  of  one  or  two  leagues,  which  announces 
the  pororoca,  (barre  or  bore ;)  such  is  the  name  which  the  In- 
dians of  the  district,  give  to  this  terrible  tide.  In  proportion  as 
it  advances,  the  noise  increases,  and  presently,  one  beholds  a 
promontory  of  water,  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  height ;  then 
a  second,  then  a  third  and  often  a  fourth  ;  which  follow  close  up- 
on each  other,  and  which  occupy  the  whole  breadth  of  the  canal. 
This  surge  advances  with  a  prodigious  rapidity,  breaking  down 
and  shaving  clean  away,  every  thing  that  opposes  it.  I  have,  in 
some  places  seen  an  extensive  tract  of  soil  carried  away  by  the 
pororoca,  trees  of  very  large  dimensions  uprooted,  and  devasta- 
tions of  every  description.  Wherever  it  passes,  the  coast  is  laid 
as  smooth  as  if  it  had  been  intentionally  and  carefully  swept."* 

Mr.  Penn  mentions  also,  the  following  fact,  which  he  says,  was 
obtained  from  an  eye-witness. 

"At  the  mouth  of  a  river  in  Nova  Scotia,  a  schooner  of  thirty 
two  tons,  laden  with  live  stock,  was  lying  with  her  side  to  the  tide; 
at  the  influx  of  the  Bore  ;  which  was  then  about  ten  feet  in  per- 
pendicular height.  No  sooner  had  this  mass  of  water  reached 
the  vessel,  than  that  great  body  was  instantly  turned  over,  like  a 
barrel  and  presently  disappeared.  After  the  tide  had  ebbed  the 
schooner  was  so  totally  absorbed  into  the  sand,  that  the  taffel  or 
upper  rail  of  the  deck,  was  alone  visible." 

This  account  corresponds  with  the  the  common  statements, 
respecting  the  tides  in  the  bay  of  Fundy,  which  are  said  to 
rise  sixty  feet,  to  come  roaring  in  like  a  mighty  rushing  flood, 
and  that  people  and  animals  upon  the  beach  sometimes,  with 
difficulty  escape  with  their  lives. 

Similar  facts  are  observed  in  the  river  Mersey,  at  Liverpool, 
and  in  the  Frome,  a  branch  of  the  Severn,  at  Bristol,  in  England, 

*  Condamine's  Voyage,  quoted  by  Penn.  Vol.  II.  p.  100. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  79 

where  the  tides  rise  between  twenty  and  thirty  feet,  rushing  in, 
through  the  channels,  in  a  tumultuous  torrent,  which  requires  pe- 
culiar precautions,  to  guard  against  its  effects. 

There  are  tides  in  England,  of  sixty  or  seventy  feet  in  height. 
The  following  notice  of  such  a  tide  and  of  some  other  interesting 
circumstances,  connected  with  the  flow,  of  water,  was  commu- 
nicated to  me,  by  a  gentleman  from  Georgia,  who  had  travelled 
in  England. 

"  The  two  principal  branches  of  the  river  Wye,  take  their  rise 
in  Hereford,  and  Montgomery  Shires,  and  unite  their  waters,  at 
Monmouth,  from  whence  to  the  Severn  where  it  empties,  the 
Wye  is  navigable.  But  vessels  with  masts,  never  ascend  be- 
yond Chepstow,  which  is  situated  in  Monmouthshire.  The  coun- 
try through  which  this  river  runs,  being  of  mountainous  charac- 
ter, its  stream  is  consequently  much  broken  by  rapids,  and  cat- 
aracts, and  as  it  approaches  Chepstow,  it  becomes  much  more  nar- 
row, being  confined  on  either  side  by  precipitous  and  rocky 
sides.  At  Chepstow,  the  river  makes  a  sudden  curve,  the  town 
occupying  the  convex  side  of  the  river.  The  strength  of  the 
stream  presses  against  the  Gloucester  bank,  and  an  eddy  is  for- 
med on  the  side  of  the  town,  by  which  vast  depositions  of  mud 
arid  sand  are  made.  But  these  encroachments,  are  often  swept 
away  by  the  rapid  and  overwhelming  floods  that  are  occasion- 
ally poured  into  the  river,  through  the  ravines  under  the  Welsh 
mountains.  I  was  in  Chepstow  in  1820.  Immediately  previous 
to  my  arrival  at  that  place,  there  had  been  many  successive  days 
of  rain,  and  the  tide  was  said  to  have  risen  sixty  feet  on  that 
occasion  !  and  I  was  informed  by  the  inhabitants  that  it  had 
been  higher.  I  saw  many  vessels  in  the  stream  secured  by  ca- 
bles made  fast  to  capstans  on  each  side  of  the  river.  The  ra- 
pidity of  the  receding  tide  was  so  great,  that  the  water  was  run- 
ning two  or  three  feet  over  the  decks  of  some  of  the  vessels, 
while  others  which  had  not  been  sufficiently  secured  against  leak- 
age, were  sunk;  and  it  frequently  happens  that  after  rainy  seasons, 
vessels  are  unable  either  to  receive,  or  deliver  cargoes  until  the 
mountains  have  "  dried  their  cheeks."  The  old  bridge  across 


80  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION* 

the  Wye,  which  was  swept  away  and  rebuilt  many  times  during 
the  last  century  was  finally  annihilated,  by  a  freshet  which  hap- 
pened sometime  in  1813  or  1814.  It  stood  on  wooden  piers, 
raised  more  than  forty  feet  from  the  bank  of  the  river.  The 
present  iron  bridge  is  erected  on  stone  piers,  of  nearly  fifty  feet 
from  the  bank,  and  notwithstanding  the  immense  piers  of  rock 
and  stone,  (based  in  the  bed  of  the  river)  which  support  its  mid- 
dle arches,  the  vibration  occasioned  by  heavy  floods  is  so  great, 
that  it  is  considered  dangerous  to  pass  it  at  such  seasons, 
as  the  most  gentle  horses  frequently  take  fright  and  do  much 
damage,  when  they  find  themselves  on  so  unfirm  a  founda- 
tion.— I  was  told  by  an  intelligent  old  gentleman  of  the  town, 
that  of  late  the  water  has  frequently  risen  much  higher  than  it 
did  when  he  was  a  boy,  which  circumstance  was  attributed  to  the 
great  agricultural  improvements,  which  had  taken  place  on  the 
bank  of  this  river,  and  particularly  in  draining,  as  the  water,  by 
those  means,  was  more  suddenly  conveyed  into  the  stream. 

"  My  old  acquaintance  also  showed  me  a  well,  situated  in  a 
garden  about  three  hundred  yards  from  the  river,  whose  water 
ebbed  and  flowed,  (as  regularly  as  the  river)  fourteen  feet  per- 
pendicular. A  little  before  the  tide  had  attained  its  height,  the 
water  in  the  well  began  to  recede ;  at  high  water  the  well  was 
dry,  and  shortly  after  the  river  began  to  ebb,  the  water  of 
the  well  returned. — The  regularity  of  this  routine  was  more  affec- 
ted by  wet  than  dry  weather."* 

*  We  had  occasion,  under  the  head  of  land  slips  and  slides,  p.  20,  to  mention  those 
of  the  White  mountains,  and  they  were  cited  also  as  instances  of  diluvial  action. 

We  now  add  a  notice  of  a  slide  in  the  mountains  of  Vermont,  in  illustration  of  the 
same  subject. 

It  happened  in  Lincoln,  Addison  county,  on  the  27th  of  June,  1827,  in  the  fore- 
noon. The  slide  commenced  near  the  top  of  the  mountain,  between  two  large  rocks 
which  were  stripped  of  earth,  opening  a  passage  of  four  rods  wide,  from  which  it 
proceeded  in  a  south  easterly  direction,  gradually  widening  for  the  distance  of  two 
hundred  rods,  to  the  south  branch  of  Mill  Brook  in  Fayston.  In  its  course  it  swept 
every  thing  in  its  way ;  overturning  trees,  divesting  them  of  their  roots,  branches 
and  bark,  and  often  breaking  them  into  short  pieces.  A  number  of  rocks  weighing 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  tons  were  moved  some  distance.  From  where  it  entered 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  81 

It  is  obvious  that  these  facts  are  cited,  in  order  to  give  us  some 
standard  views  by  which  we  may  estimate  the  force  of  great 
moving  waters,  especially  when  their  power  is  increased  by  lat- 
eral pressure,  operating  to  narrow  the  channels  in  which  they 
flow. 

Every  great  rain  gives  us  similar  evidence,  by  the  effects  of  the 
torrents  which  it  creates,  or  greatly  augments.  They  produce 
frightful  devastation  in  their  course,  and  sometimes  bear  before 
them  every  thing  but  the  firmly  fixed  mountain  rocks. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  cite  a  more  striking  instance  of  dilu- 
vial ravages,  than  those  produced  by  the  eruptions  of  Long  Lake 
into  Mud  Lake,  in  Vermont,  June  6,  1310,*  on  which  occasion, 

*  American  Journal,  Vol.  XI.  p.  39. 

Mill  Brook,  its  course  was  in  a  north  easterly  direction,  two  hundred  and  eighty 
rods,  the  natural  course  of  the  brook  being  very  small ;  but  the  channel  cut  by  this 
torrent  is  now  from  two  to  ten  rods  in  width  ;  and  on  either  side  are  large  quantities 
of  flood  wood  piled  up  very  high  ;  and  from  fifteen  to  twenty  rods  of  the  lower 
part  it  is  blocked  up  across  the  channel  in  every  direction  ;  some  of  the  trees  are 
standing  on  their  tops,  and  generally  stripped  of  roots,  branches  and  bark,  and  broken 
into  many  pieces.  A  large  birch  tree,  measuring  three  feet  nine  inches,  was  broken 
off  square.  A  black  ash  was  literally  pounded  into  a  broom,  whose  brush  is  seven 
feet  long.  The  force  of  the  water  was  very  great ;  in  some  places,  it  must  have 
been  thirty  feet  deep.  Some  of  the  trees  on  the  sides  of  the  channel  were  barked 
thirty  or  forty  feet  high,  and  there  was  mud  on  them  at  that  height. 

The  report  was  heard  at  the  distance  of  several  miles,  and  by  some  was  thought  to 
be  an  earthquake — by  others,  a  clap  of  thunder,  but  unaccountably  prolonged  and 
attended  by  a  perceptible,  continued  jar.  Fortunately,  as  it  was  a  number  of  miles 
distant  from  any  human  abode,  wild  beasts  alone,  were  exposed  to  its  ravages.* 

In  its  whole  course  before  reaching  Mill  Brook,  it  swept  through  a  dense  forest, 
mostly  of  hemlock  and  spruce,  and  took  off  the  entire  surface,  and  every  thing  which 
it  contained.  The  ground  appeared  to  be  as  free  from  roots  as  if  it  had  been  tilled 
for  fifty  years.  Some  trees  which  were  so  firmly  rooted  in  the  rocks,  that  they 
could  not  be  drawn  out,  were  pounded  off  upon  a  level  with  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  as  if  they  had  been  but  slender  reeds.  At  some  distance  above  the  stream 
the  mass  parted,  and  left  a  few  rods  square  of  timber  standing — but  soon  united 
again — and  rushing  on  in  all  its  tremendous  power,  struck  obliquely  against  the 
opposite  bank  of  Mill  Brook,  with  a  concussion  that  shook  the- mountains.  When- 

*  A  similar  occurrence  took  place  a  few  years  since  upon  the  same  peak,  but  on  a 
much  smaller  scale. 

11 


82  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

earth,  stones,  large  rocks,  trees  and  forests,  animals,  mills,  and 
other  structures,  were  borne  away  with  resistless  impetuosity, 
with  the  noise  of  loud  thunder,  and  the  concussion  of  an  earth- 
quake— excavating  the  small  outlet  of  the  lakes,  called  Barton 
river,  into  a  channel,  sometimes  one-eighth  of  a  mile  wide,  and 
sixty  or  eighty  feet  deep — the  devastation  extending  fourteen 
miles  in  length,  and,  to  a  degree,  twenty  two  miles,  quite  to 
Lake  Memphremagog. 

The  effects  of  the  great  storm  of  July  26,  1819,  in  the  Cattskill 
range;*  and  those  of  the  tempest  in  the  White  mountains,!  in 
New  Hampshire,  August,  1826,  by  which  the  great  slides  in  the 

*  American  Journal,  Vol.  IV.  p.  125.  t  Already  cited  p.  20  of  this  sketch. 

ever  a  check  was  given  to  its  progress,  the  torrent  soon  accumulated  force  sufficient 
to  burst  every  barrier — and  again  the  huge  pile  proceeded,  thundering  down  the 
mountain.  The  forest  seems  to  have  been  prostrated  with  as  much  ease  as  if  it  had 
been  but  a  field  of  grain.  The  mass  evidently  went  down  in  the  wildest  confusion. 
The  trees  sometimes  erect,  or  sweeping  around  in  circles,  struck  those  upon  the 
banks  of  the  stream — as  appeared  by  the  bark  frequently  taken  off  at  a  great  height — 
now  their  tops  and  roots,  alternately  projecting  forward,  and  again  lying  across  the 
current,  were  shivered  in  an  instant.  They  are  left  in  considerable  numbers  through- 
out the  whole  course,  some  lying  upon  the  banks,  others  in  the  channel,  and  wholly 
or  in  part,  buried  in  the  sand  and  rocks.  But  the  principal  part  of  the  timber  swept 
from  twenty-five  acres  of  forest,  now  converted  into  a  barren  waste,  lies  piled  in  a 
confused  heap,  covering  perhaps  an  acre  of  ground,  one  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
spot  where  the  slide  commenced!  Here,  having  already  spent  much  of  its  force, 
and  the  mountain  growing  less  precipitous,  it  struck  into  a  cluster,  of  firmly  rooted 
trees  and  was  compelled  to  stop.  At  this  place  it  presents  a  perpendicular  wall  of 
logs,  &c.  across  the  entire  channel,  in  some  places  ten  or  fifteen  feet  high.  The  up- 
per end  of  the  pile  is  buried  beneath  the  sand  and  stones,  and  the  stream  now  runs 
over  the  top.  Perhaps  those  very  logs  will  be  dug  out  in  after  times  as  fossil  wood. 
Every  thing  in  this  mass,  bears  the  marks  of  the  greatest  violence.  Almost  every 
tree  is  completely  divested  of  its  roots,  branches,  and  bark,  as  could  have  been  ef- 
fected by  man,  with  the  proper  instruments.  They  are  pounded  and  splintered  and 
broken  into  all  imaginable  shapes  and  lengths.  The  scene  is  well  worth  the  atten- 
tion of  all  who  have  never  witnessed  the  effects  produced  by  the  agency  of  rush- 
ing torrents  of  water.  No  one  who  has  contemplated  such  scenes,  can  doubt, 
that  water  is  adequate  to  the  production  of  any  of  those  effects,  which  are  ascribed 
to  the  deluge. — Cited  from  Mr.  Baldwin's  statement,  American  Journal,  Vol.  XV. 
p.  228. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  83 

notch  were  produced,  will  afford  us  additional  evidence  of  the 
tremendous  power  of  great  moving  waters. 

The  following  fact  is  cited  by  Mr.  Penn,  (Vol.  I.  p.  50,  Introd.) 

"On  the  14th  of  October,  1822,  a  wave,  which,  during  a 
storm,  broke  against  the  pier  of  Ramsgate,  and  was  dashed  up- 
wards to  a  height  of  about  fourteen  feet,  fell  again  upon  the 
stone  pavement  of  the  pier  head ;  and,  by  the  force  of  its  reac- 
tion, instantaneously  raised  a  thirty-six  pound  carronade,  with  its 
carriage,  over  a  stone  ledge,  and  precipitated  it  into  the  sea.  The 
harbor  men  assured  me,  that  it  would  have  required  the  utmost 
efforts  of  twenty  men,  to  effect  the  same  operation. " 

In  the  great  tempest  of  September,  1815,  among  many  similar 
effects,  which  happened  all  along  the  shores  of  New  England, 
a  vast  ridgy  wave,  raised  by  the  hurricane,  came  suddenly,  in 
an  overwhelming  deluge,  upon  the  lower  town  of  Providence,  in 
Rhode  Island,  and,  by  its  force,  entire  rows  of  houses,  and  stores, 
and  ware-houses,  were,  in  a  few  minutes,  prostrated.  Ships  of 
three  and  four  hundred  tons,  were  thrown  upon  the  wharves, 
knocking  down  large  buildings  by  their  momentum;  some  were 
carried  into  the  town, thrusting  their  jib-booms  in  at  the  second  and 
third  stories  of  houses;  others  were  lodged  in  the  streets,  and  a 
number,  and  those  some  of  the  largest,*  after  carrying  away  a 
strong  bridge,  were  driven  through  a  bay,  usually  too  shallow,  even 
for  small  craft,  and  were  thrown  up,  high  and  dry,  upon  a  beach, 
where  the  salt  water  has  never  been  since,  and  may,  perhaps, 
never  come  again.  Nothing  would  be  easier  than  to  swell  the 
list  of  such  events  ;  but  these  are  sufficient  for  our  purpose. 

If  such  effects  are  produced  by  torrents,  and  tides  of  limited 
extent,  and  short  duration,  the  highest  of  which  scarcely  equals 
one  third  part  of  that  of  the  diluvial  tides,  for  the  same  time,  and 
whose  duration  was  not  equal,  in  any  instance,  to  T^  part  of  that 
of  the  waters  of  the  deluge — if  such  ravages  were  committed  by 
the  Pororoca  of  the  Amazon,  by  the  Bore  of  Nova  Scotia,  and 
by  the  tides  of  the  English  Wye,  what  must  have  been  those  of 
the  forty  days  tide  of  the  deluge  ! 

*  Among  them,  the  Ganges,  formerly  a  sloop  of  war. 


84  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

Granting  the  measure  of  time  given  in  the  history  of  the  event, 
and  that  of  the  elevation  afforded  by  the  highest  existing  moun- 
tains, (both  of  which  appear  to  be  fair  grounds  of  reasoning,)  it  is 
not  easy  to  exalt  the  imagination  to  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  terrors  of  that  awful  catastrophe.  The  inconceivably  violent 
torrents  and  cataracts,  every  where  descending  from  the  hills  and 
mountains,  and  meeting  a  tide,  rising  at  the  rate  of  more  than 
seven  hundred  feet  in  twenty-four  hours — resisted  and  aggravat- 
ed in  force,  wherever  it  encountered  the  land,  and  still  more,  the 
hills,  and  the  mountain  ridges ;  accompanied,  also,  we  may  pre- 
sume, by  other  great  instruments  of  almighty  power — the  tempest, 
the  volcano,  and  the  earthquake :  but  with,  or  without  them — 
impelled  with  resistless  violence — it  must  have  swept  over  the  sur- 
face, with  a  force  vastly  greater  than  any  thing  that  we  now  know 
of  the  mightiest  rushing  waters.  It  evidently  rolled  every  where 
over  the  various  inequalities  of  land,  in  tremendous  agitated  bil- 
lows ;  and  where  it  was  narrowed  by  ridges,  and  hills,  and  moun- 
tains, and  thus  forced  through  valleys  and  defiles,  it  must  have 
presented  innumerable  raging  torrents  and  cataracts,  of  awful 
height,  force  and  magnitude,  compared  with  which,  even  Niaga- 
ra would  be  insignificant ;  and  at  that  time  stupendous  rapids  and 
cataracts  necessarily  existed,  wherever  the  water  pitched  over 
barriers  and  precipices.* 

PHYSICAL    EFFECTS    OF    THE     DELUGE. 

Are  there  any  appearances  upon  the  surface  of  the  planet, 
proving  that  it  has  been  ravaged  by  a  violent,  sudden,  and  tran- 

*  However  proper  in  a  moral,  it  is  not  necessary  in  a  geological  view,  to  advert  to 
the  terrors  of  the  animal  creation — and  still  more,  to  the  dismay  and  despair  of  the 
human  race.  The  traditions  of  all  nations,  shew  that  an  indelible  impression  has 
been  made  by  the  event.  Painters  and  poets  have  drawn  the  most  vivid  and  pain- 
fully sublime  pictures  of  those  overwhelming  scenes :  and  to  their  graphic  touches 
we  leave  the  subject. 

Nor  do  we  think  it  incumbent  on  us  to  shew,  that  the  ark  was  safe  amid  that 
mighty  movement  of  waters.  A  broad  flat  vessel,  probably  without  spars  and  rig- 
ging, deeply  laden,  might  well  stand  the  agitation  of  that  ocean;  and,  if  grounded, 
it  would  be  but  for  a  moment,  as  the  rising  flood  would  immediately  lift  the  floating 
structure  clear  again.  '• 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  8£ 

sient  deluge  ?  The  answer  is,  that  they  are  numerous  and  con- 
vincing. 

The  effects  of  the  deluge  were  not  forming,  but  destroying  ef- 
fects: they  were  mechanical,  and  not  chemical.  There  is  not 
the  least  reason  to  believe,  that  any  solid  rock  was  produced  at 
that  period,  nor  that  any  of  the  firmly  imbedded  and  petrified  or- 
ganized remains  belong  to  this  epoch.  The  diluvial  ocean  was 
agitated  by  a  mighty  moving  force,  or  it  would  never  have  attain- 
ed its  greatest  elevation  within  forty  days ;  it  was  turbid  in  the 
extreme,  and  filled  with  the  wreck  of  the  surface  of  the  planet, 
with  moving  rocks,  stones,  gravel,  earth,  and  coarse  and  fine  sed- 
iment— and  with  extirpated  and  floating  vegetables,  and  drowned 
animals. 

Its  various  effects  may  be  included  under, 

1.  Disposition  of  mineral  masses. 

2.  Of  animal  and  vegetable. 
1.  Mineral  diluvium. 

The  distinction  between  diluvium  and  alluvium  has  been  al- 
ready pointed  out. 

Diluvium  is  found  every  where.  The  almost  universal  depos- 
its of  rolled  pebbles,  and  bowlders  of  rock,  not  only  on  the 
margin  of  the  oceans,  seas,  lakes,  and  rivers ;  but  their  existence, 
often  in  enormous  quantities,  in  situations  quite  removed  from 
large  waters ;  inland, — imbedded  in  high  banks,  or  scattered, 
occasionally,  in  profusion,  on  the  face  of  almost  every  region, 
and  sometimes  on  the  tops  and  declivities  of  mountains,  as 
weir  as  in  the  valleys  between  them  ;  their  entire  difference,  in 
many  cases,  from  the  rocks  in  the  country  where  they  lie — round- 
ed masses,  and  pebbles  of  primitive  rocks,  being  deposited  in  sec- 
ondary and  tertiary  regions,  and  vice  versa  ;  these,  and  a  multi- 
tude of  similar  facts,  have  ever  struck  us  as  being  among  the  most 
interesting  of  geological  occurrences,  and  as  being  very  inade- 
quately accounted  for  by  former  theories.  Pebbles  may,  in  giv- 
en instances,  be  formed,  (possibly,)  by  decomposition  of  the  an- 
gular portions  of  a  stone — by  various  chemical  agencies,  aiding 
those  of  a  mechanical  nature — but  an  immense  number,  and,  in 


36  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

our  view,  much  the  greater  number  of  pebbles,  present  unques- 
tionable evidence  of  having  been  brought  to  their  rounded  form 
by  friction. 

The  attrition  of  the  common  waters  of  the  earth,  and  even  that 
exerted  during  the  comparatively  short  period,  of  the  prevalence 
of  the  deluge  of  Noah,  would  do  very  little  towards  producing  so 
mighty  a  result ;  and  we  must  assign  this  operation  to  the  more 
recent  periods  of  the  prevalence  of  the  first  ocean. 

Diluvial  formations  have  a  wave-like  or  undulating  appear- 
ance. 

This  we  have  often  observed  in  the  plain  of  New  Haven,  and 
in  other  regions  of  Connecticut  and  New  England — exhibiting 
frequently,  a  delicacy  of  flexion,  in  the  layers  of  gravel  and  sand, 
which  makes  them  appear  as  if  they  had,  but  a  moment  before, 
received  their  impulse  and  position  from  undulating  water,  and 
as  if  they  had  copied  the  very  eddies  and  gyrations  of  the  wave. 

Bowlder  stones,*  consisting  of  fragments  of  primitive  rocks, 
probably  from  north  of  the  great  lakes,  are  found  abundantly 
on  the  secondary  regions  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky  ;  the  fragments 
of  the  primitive  Alps,  on  the  Jura  chain,  (the  lake  of  Geneva 
intervening ;)  the  ruins  of  the  Scandinavian  mountains  on  the 
secondary  and  diluvial  plains  of  Prussia  and  Northern  Germany, 
(the  Baltic  being  between,)  and  the  fragments  of  the  northern 
counties  of  England,  cover  the  southern  and  middle  regions. 

In  many  cases,  bowlders  and  pebbles  can  be  traced  to  their 
native  beds,  and  frequently  they  are  strangers  to  the  regions 
where  they  are  found. 

Deserts  of  sand,  covering  tracts  more  or  less  extensive,  such  as 
those  in  South  Africa,  and  in  the  Zahara,  stretching  in  a  vast 
belt,  from  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  the  desert  of  Lybia ;  the  sandy 
plains  of  Arabia,  Germany,  and  Russia — the  great  desert  at  the 
foot  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  all  similar  deposits,  in  situa- 


*  The  rock,  in  Horeb,  that,  being  smitten  by  the  rod,  gave  forth  water,  is,  accor- 
ding to  SHAW,  a  bowlder  of  granite. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DJLUyiAL  ACTION.  87 

lions  where  no  existing  causes  could  leave  them,  are,  with  great 
propriety,  referred  to  the  deluge. 

The  diluvial  waters  appear  to  have  transported  and  arranged 
these  masses,  by  sedimentary  deposition,  and  that  they  had  suffi- 
cient power  to  roll  even  bowlder  stones  and  disjointed  columns* 
to  great  distances,  is  sufficiently  evident,  from  what  we  know  of 
the  energy  of  torrents  in  our  own  time. 

Beds  of  sand,  gravel,  clay,  loam,  pebbles  and  bowlders  are 
found  to  compose  the  loose  materials  of  every  country,  and  they 
invariably  exhibit  the  appearance  of  deposition  from  water, 
sometimes  tranquil,  sometimes  more  or  less  agitated. 

The  effects  of  the  devastation  which  every  where  marked  the 
rise  of  the  deluge,  were  in  a  considerable  degree  veiled,  by  the 
gradual  depositions  of  sedimentary  matter  that  took  place  during 
the  decline  of  the  waters.  The  history  informs  us  that  the  waters 
rose  forty  days,  prevailed  one  hundred  and  fifty  days,  and  gradu- 
ally retired  during  six  months,  thus  affording  a  long  period,  of 
comparative  tranquillity,  for  the  arrangement  of  the  universal 
sedimentary  beds  which  we  now  see. 

As  at  the  termination  of  the  first  ocean,  there  must  have  been 
a  multitude  of  local  lakes,  determined,  by  the  basin  shape,  so  often 
traced  by  contiguous  hills  and  high  grounds ;  in  these,  sepa- 
rate and  independent  deposits  were  doubtless  going  on,  for  a 
length  of  time,  even  after  the  earth  began  to  be  repeopled. 
Those  lakes  that  had  no  permanent  supply  of  water,  would,  of 
course  be  exhausted  by  soakage  and  by  evaporation:  others 
would  burst  their  barriers,  or  gradually  wear  them  down  and  re- 
new the  diluvial  ravages,  during  their  escape;  while  those  only 
would  be  perennial,  which  were  fed  by  streams  or  springs. 

Many  valleys  of  denudation,  as  they  are  called  by  Prof.  Buck- 
land,  were  probably  produced  by  the  deluge  of  Noah.  Such  val- 


*  Such  as  the  columns  of  trap,  sometimes  of  enormous  size,  which  are  found  scat- 
tered, up  and  down,  through  the  great  Connecticut  valley,  often  at  a  great  distance 
from  their  parent  ridges.  The  most  remarkable  case  in  this  range,  is  ten  miles  west 
of  Hartford,  on  the  Albany  turnpike. — See  Tour  to  Quebec. 


38  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

leys  are  conspicuously  seen  in  the  South  of  England :  similar 
strata  are  found  capping  contiguous  hills,  projecting  at  their 
sides,  and  running  beneath  their  foundations ;  a  curve  or  hollow 
having  been  scooped  out  between,  thus  indicating  the  effects  of 
great  rushing  torrents,  attended  perhaps  by  convulsions,  that 
more  or  less,  broke  up  the  superficial  strata.* 

It  is  not  intended  that  all  valleys  were  produced  in  this  man- 
ner; many  doubtless  were  thus  formed,  and  many  more  were 
deepened  and  modified,  but  a  multitude  of  them  were  probably 
among  the  original  features  of  the  planet,  or  produced  by  early 
convulsions. 

What  has  been  said  of  diluvium  is  not  intended  to  exclude  the 
idea  of  alluvium.  This  is  forming  at  all  times  by  the  action  of 
causes  now  in  full  operation,  and  many  instances  of  great  effects  of 
this  kind  might  be  cited ;  as  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  in  many  other  embouchures,  in  bays  or  sea  coasts, 
lake  shores,  &c.  On  this  subject  it  is  not  necessary  to  enlarge.* 

2.  Animal  and  vegetable  bodies  covered  by  diluvium. 

A.  Human  Remains. 

Are  there  any  remains  of  the  human  race  covered  by  the  di- 
luvium ?  Until  very  recently,  it  has  been  confidently  answered 
that  none  have  been  found.  The  human  skeletons  discovered  in 
tufaceous  limestone  both  in  Gaudaloupe,  (Phil.  Trans,  of  Lond.,) 
and  more  recently  in  Brazil,  (Phila.  Trans.)  being  arranged  in 
uniform  order,  parallel,  sloping,  and  with  their  heads  all  one  wayT 
were  doubtless  deposited  in  this  manner  for  burial. 

Those  at  Gaudaloupe,  being  situated  where  the  tide  ebbs  and 
flows  over  them,  were  evidently  in  a  more  elevated  situation  with 
respect  to  water  when  they  were  interred  than  now  ;  and  water 
has  probably  been  the  agent,  by  means  of  which,  the  tufaceous 
rock  has  been  formed  around  them.  The  circumstances  of  those 
in  Brazil  indicate  that  water  has  stood  over  them  also,  but  they 

*  See  this  subject  ably  investigated  and  illustrated  in  the  Reliquiae  Dilnviana0 
t  See  Dr.  H.  H.  Hayden's  interesting  geologjeal^essays. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  89 

are  several  miles  from  the  present  sea,  and  the  peculiar  arrange- 
ment and  other  circumstances  of  both  deposits,  indicate  that  the 
bodies  were  interred  with  the  rights  of  sepulture,  and  of  course 
that  they  cannot  be  diluvial  relics.  For  our  present  purpose,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  discuss  these  facts  any  farther. 

If  there  be  any  human  remains,  hitherto  ascertained,  that  may 
be  referred  to  the  diluvial  catastrophe,  they  are,  perhaps,  those 
discovered  in  the  cavern  of  Durfort,  in  France,*  and  in  the  quar- 
ries of  Kosrutz,  in  Germany.  It  would  appear  possible,  perhaps 
probable,  that  the  human  remains  found  in  these  situations,  were 
deposited  there  by  the  deluge.  Such  discoveries  may  be,  here- 
after, multiplied.  They  should  be  received  with  caution ;  but 
they  cannot  fail  to  be  acceptable,  both  to  the  friends  of  geology 
and  of  the  early  scripture  history. 

When  it  is  considered,  that,  excepting  straggling  colonies, 
scattered  here  and  there,  in  remoter  countries,  the  human  family, 
at  the  time  of  the  deluge,  had  probably,  not  extended  far  beyond 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris  and  other  vicinal 
Asiatic  countries  ;  that  even  those  countries,  may  not  have  been, 
at  that  time,  very  populous ;  that  many  of  the  corpses  may  have 
been  swept  into  the  ocean,  many  more  buried  deep  in  diluvium 
or  in  accidental  cavities  and  fissures  ;  that  those  countries,  being 
without  curiosity  and  without  science ;  and  under  an  arbitrary 
and  jealous  government,  there  is  little  probability,  that  discover- 
ies relating  to  the  extirpated  human  family,  would  be  made,  or, 
if  made  accidentally,  that  the  remains  would  be  regarded,  by 
the  ignorant  and  incurious  inhabitants,  in  any  other  light,  than 
those  found  in  burying  grounds. 

Under  a  different  sway,  it  is  not,  perhaps,  improbable,  that  di- 
luvial human  bones  may  hereafter  be  found  in  Asia ;  but  under 
present  circumstances,  their  absence  does  not  operate,  in  any  de- 
gree, against  the  reality  of  the  deluge,  attested  as  it  is,  by  so 
many  geological  facts,  as  well  as  by  the  history. 

*  Penn,  Vol.  II.  p  394. 

12  If 


90  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

B.  Remains  of  Animals  and  Vegetables. 

These  are  very  numerous  and  equally  unquestionable. 

We  would  by  no  means  insist,  that  every  skeleton  and  bone, 
found  in  diluvium,  was  buried  there  by  the  grand  catastrophe. 
We  are  willing  to  allow  a  reasonable  number,  and  all  that  can  on 
probable  evidence  be  thus  referred,  to  mere  accidents,  and  to  di- 
luvium or  alluvium,  of  a  more  modern  date  than  that  of  the 
deluge.* 

Single  bones,  parts  of  skeletons,  and  entire  skeletons  of  the 
larger  animals,  often  of  extinct  species,  but  mostly  of  known  ge- 
nera, are  found  abundantly  in  the  diluvium  of  all  countries,  where 
curiosity  and  intelligence  exist. 

Whales,  sharks  and  other  fishes ;  crocodiles  and  other  am- 
phibia;  the  mammoth  or  the  extinct  elephant;  species  of  ele- 
phants, nearly  or  quite  like  those  of  modern  times;  the  rhinoceros, 
the  hippopotamus ;  hyenas,  tigers,  deer,  horses ;  various  species  of 
the  bovine  family,  and  a  multitude  more,  are  found  buried  in  the 
diluvium,  at  a  greater  or  less  depth  ;  and  in  most  instances,  un- 
der circumstances  indicating  that  they  were  buried  by  the  same 
catastrophe,  which  destroyed  them ;  namely,  a  sudden  and  vio- 
lent deluge. 

The  interesting  and  instructive  geological  essays  of  Dr.  H.  H. 
Hayden,  may  be  consulted,  for  a  series  of  facts,  relating  to  the 
diluvium  of  the  Atlantic  portion  of  the  middle  and  southern  states 
of  North  America.  It  appears,  that  under  this  diluvium,  there  is 
buried  a  great  quantity  of  the  bones  of  whales,  sharks,  porpoises, 
mammoths,  Asiatic  elephants  and  other  large  animals,  along  with 
numerous  trees,  sometimes'  with  their  fruit.  Layers  of  marine 

*  We  are  not  unwilling  to  concede  every  fact,  that  can  fairly  be  claimed,  by  the 
ingenious  writer,  who  would  have  the  inhumed  remains  of  elephants  and  other  large 
animals,  referred  to  the  celebration  of  Roman  and  Tartarian  games,  and  to  their  war- 
like movements;  but  he  must  not  demand  too  much.  What  Roman  or  Mongul 
Tartar  emperor,  ever  marched  armies  or  held  his  court  in  either  of  the  Americas,  on 
the  Ohio,  in  New  Jersey  and  New  York,  or  at  Cheshire,  near  New  Haven,  and  in 
innumerable  other  places,  where  the  bones  of  the  mammoth  and  of  other  gigantic 
animals  have  been  found  ? 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  91 

mud,  are  also  found,  deep  beneath  the  diluvium,  below  the  pres- 
ent low  water  mark. 

There  are  also  vast  quantities  of  shells,  and  especially  of  a  gi- 
gantic oyster,  in  many  parts  of  the  southern  states.  They  are 
found,  not  only  in  digging  for  wells,  but  they  form  vast  beds  in 
various  places. 

One  of  the  largest  beds  on  the  eastern  continent,  is  near  Tours, 
in  France ;  it  is  twenty  seven  miles  long  and  twenty  feet  thick. 

But  the  beds  of  the  southern  states  far  exceed  this.  A  stra- 
tum, on  the  whole  continuous,  although  mixed,  more  or  less, 
with  the  general  diluvium,  and  other  materials  of  the  country, 
has  been  traced  from  the  Eutaw  springs,  in  South  Carolina,  to 
the  Chickasaw  country  ;  six  hundred  miles  in  length,  by  ten,  or 
from  that  to  one  hundred,  in  breadth.* 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  many  of  the  beds  of  oyster 
shells  which  have  been  attributed  to  the  aboriginal  Indians  of 
this  country  are  diluvial  deposits. 

The  bones  and  skeletons  of  large  animals,  especially  of  the 
mammoth,  are  found  in  wide  dispersion,  and  in  very  remote 
countries;  in  both  Americas,  in  Europe  and  in  Asia.  In  northern 
Asia,  the  tusks  of  the  extinct  elephant,  are  discovered  in  the  diluvial 
banks  of  almost  every  river,  and  the  ivory  is  found  in  such  abund- 
ance, as  to  be  a  regular  article  of  commerce.  An  enormous  car- 
case,t  of  the  northern  or  Asiatic  elephant,  a  few  years  since,  by 
the  gradual  thawing  of  the  frozen  bank,  in  which  it  was  imbed- 
ded, high  above  the  water,  fell  down  and  exhibited  the  flesh  in 
full  preservation ;  the  long  bristly  hair  and  vast  massy  hide,  re- 
quiring a  large  number  of  men,  to  carry  it,  afforded  proof  irre- 
fragable, of  the  existence  of  the  animal  in  those  rigorous  climates, 
and  of  his  sudden  extinction,  inhumation  and  congelation,  with 
so  little  interval  of  time,  that  putrefaction  had  not  commenced, 
and  has  not  since  taken  place,  during  a  long  succession  of  ages. 

Indeed,  there  is  but  one  view  which  appears  to  carry  with  it 
the  least  probability,  as  to  the  cause  of  the  wide  dispersion  and 


*  Mr.  Finch  in  American  Journal  of  Science,  Vol.  VII.  p.  4Q. 
4  Notes  to  Cvivier's  Introductory  Discourse, 


92  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

sepulture  of  the  gigantic  races ;  especially  of  extinct  animals  in 
the  various  quarters  of  the  world.  It  seems  evidently  to  have 
been  the  work  of  the  deluge,  which  at  once  drowned,  and  in  ma- 
ny instances,  extinguished  whole  races  of  animals,  and  buried 
their  bodies  in  the  wreck  of  the  planet  with  which  those  waters 
were  evidently  filled.  Such  a  scene  of  awful  devastation,  was  as 
well  fitted  to  produce  these  effects,  as  it  was  ill  adapted,  to  the 
comparatively  tranquil  life  and  death  of  the  successive  genera- 
tions of  marine  and  aqueous  animals,  that  peopled  the  early  ocean 
in  its  middle  and  later  stages.  Organized  remains  are  found  at 
very  high  levels,  not  only  mineralized  but  loose  or  in  diluvium, 
thus  proving  the  prevalence  of  the  ocean,  at  different  periods. 

It  is  said  that  the  skeleton  of  a  whale  lies  on  the  top  of  the 
mountain  Sandhorn,  on  the  coast  of  the  northern  sea.  The 
mountain  is  three  thousand  feet  high,  and  there  is  no  cause  that 
could  have  conveyed  the  whale  to  that  elevation,  except  a  deluge 
rising  to  that  height.* 

So  late  as  June  1824,  the  remains  of  a  whale  were  found  on 
the  westernmost  Stappen,  a  mountain  in  Fmmarck,  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  eight  hundred  feet  above  the  ocean.  The  specimens 
which  were  reported  to  be  vertebrae,  were  lost  by  shipwreck  on 
their  passage  to  England.  Similar  remains  are  said  to  exist  also 
in  North  Fugeloe,  another  mountain  in  those  regions.? 

It  is  common  to  find  trees  and  their  members  in  the  diluvium, 
and  also  in  the  known  alluvium  of  rivers,  &c.  In  general,  they 
are  not  much  altered  ;  sometimes  they  are  partially  bituminized 
or  verge  towards  lignite,  or  perhaps  are  really  lignite  ;  at  other 
times,  they  are  penetrated  by  acids  and  saline  substances,  and 
metallic  minerals,  as  pyrites,  are  occasionally  formed  upon  them. 

It  has  been  already  said  that  there  is  no  difference  in  the  na- 
ture of  the  operations  by  which  diluvium  and  alluvium  are  produ- 
ced, and  that  we  must  resort  to  an  induction  of  particulars  in  order 
to  enable  us  to  distinguish  between  them,  but  in  most  situations, 
especially  those  that  are  remote  from  rivers  and  moving  waters, 
there  is  very  little  occasion  for  hesitation,  in  forming  an  opinion. 

*  Perm,  Vol.  II.  pa.  303.  t  Ibid. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  98 

Extinction  of  Animal  Races  by  the  Deluge. 

We  cannot  reasonably  doubt,  that  many  of  the  skeletons  and 
bones  of  the  animal  races,  which  we  find  buried  in  ancient  dilu- 
vium, in  caverns,  and  in  fissures  in  rocks,  were  covered  by  the 
wreck  and  sediment  of  the  deluge ;  others  have  evidently  been 
covered  since,  by  ordinary  or  extraordinary  events,  and  our  decis- 
ion, as  to  the  era  to  which  we  are  to  assign  them,  respectively, 
must  depend  on  the  circumstances  of  each  particular  case. 

But,  is  it  necessary  to  suppose,  that  all  the  extinct  races  of 
large  animals,  found  in  diluvium,  were  destroyed  at  the  deluge  ? 
If  the  account  of  the  animals  that  were  preserved  in  the  ark,  is 
to  be  understood  so  strictly,  as  to  include  every  genus  and  every 
species,  then  we  need  make  no  other  variation  in  our  conclusions, 
than  that,  while  all  the  animals,  except  a  few  individuals  of  each 
species,  perished  in  the  deluge  ;  and  therefore,  their  remains  may 
be  naturally  found  in  ancient  diluvium  ;  some  genera  and  species, 
of  which  the  representatives  were  preserved  in  the  ark,  with  the 
other  animals,  have  perished  since,  by  unknown  causes,  so  that 
their  races  have  disappeared  entirely  from  the  earth.  There  can 
be  no  objection  to  this  admission — it  does  not  weaken,  at  all,  our 
view  of  the  peculiar  and  destroying  effects  of  the  deluge.*  While 
we  make  this  remark,  we  must  not  however  forget,  that  the  fish 
are  not  mentioned  in  the  history  of  the  deluge.  The  obvious 
answer  to  this  is,  that  being  tenants  of  the  waters,  they  might 
well  be  left  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

Whatever  difficulties  may  arise,  from  the  universal  prevalence 
of  a  stormy,  agitated  ocean,  (at  least  stormy  and  agitated  during  its 
rise,  although  comparatively  pacific  after  it  had  attained  its  height, 

*  Although  it  appears  to  me  nearly  certain,  that  most  of  the  mastodons  perished  at 
the  deluge,  I  have  no  objection  to  admitting,  that  some  of  them,  whose  skeletons  are 
found,  may  have  perished  before,  or  since  that  event.  Those  that  are  buried  in  an- 
cient diluvium,  as  that  whose  remains  were  recently  discovered  near  New  Haven, 
in  the  gravel  arising  from  the  decomposition  of  the  old  red  sandstone  rock,  were 
clearly  antediluvian,  and  probably  destroyed  by  the  deluge ;  while  some  that  have 
been  discovered,  foundered  in  salt  licks  and  marshes,  may  have  perished  by  miring, 
as  cattle  do  at  the  present  day. 


94  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

and  during  its  decline,)  an  ocean  filled  with  the  wreck  of  the  sur- 
face, turbid  with  mud,  and  unfriendly  to  the  preservation  even  of 
fishes,  especially,  as  they  include  the  species,  both  of  salt  and 
fresh  water,  and  therefore  of  widely  different  habits :  we  may 
suppose,  that  a  few  might  still  escape  destruction,  and  thus  pre- 
serve the  races,  although  the  greater  number  evidently  perished, 
along  with  the  land  animals.  As  might  be  expected  therefore, 
we  find  the  skeletons  of  large  fishes,  (whales,  sharks,  &c.)  buried 
in  ancient  diluvium,  or  grounded  on  high  mountains,  especially 
where  cold  and  ice  have  aided  in  preserving  the  remains  from 
decomposition.* 

Preservation  of  Vegetables. 

Without  supposing  that  the  ark  was  a  green  house,  or  a  repos- 
itory of  antediluvian  seeds,  it  would  perhaps  not  appear  incredible, 
that  Noah,  so  long  warned  of  the  approaching  catastrophe,  which 
was  to  tear  away  the  soil,  and  root  up  the  forests  by  the  force  of 
rushing  waters,  should  have  preserved  some  of  the  more  impor- 
tant esculent  plants  and  seeds ;  a  degree  of  care  not  exceeding 
that  which  is  exercised  by  every  leader  of  a  colony,  when  passing 
over  seas  to  a  new  abode.  But,  however  this  may  have  been, 
there  is  no  serious  difficulty  in  believing,  that  in  an  ocean,  which, 
from  its  magnitude  and  depth,  was  probably  never  warmed  to 
that  degree  that  favors  germination,  or  vegetable  decomposition  : 
seeds  of  almost  every  kind,  may  have  floated,  uninjured,  during 
the  short  period  of  a  year,  (for  we  know  that  seeds  and?  seed 
vessels,  are  actually  floated  from  continent  to  continent,  without 
losing  their  germinating  powers,)  and  when  the  waters  subsided, 
they  would  of  course,  at  least  those  that  were  in  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, again  shoot  and  grow. 

We  know  also  that  seeds  lie  uninjured  in  the  earth  for  many 
years,  for  every  movement  of  the  soil  in  cultivation  is  sure,  after 
a  little  repose,  to  bring  up  a  new  crop  of  plants,  and  successive 

*  We  do  not  refer  to  remains  of  fishes  in  the  solid  rocks,  which  obviously  belong 
to  the  first  ocean. 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  95 

crops  spring  up  spontaneously,  on  the  same  ground,  even  when 
left  untiiled  from  year  to  year. 

It  is  obvious  also,  that  the  roots  of  plants  and  trees,  would 
again  strike  into  the  ground  and  vegetate  anew,  as  soon  as  the 
waters  were  sufficiently  withdrawn,  and  the  kindly  influence  of 
the  sun  was  felt. 

There  seems  therefore  no  serious  difficulty  in  the  restoration  of 
vegetation  to  the  earth,  after  the  deluge.* 

The  loose  materials  by  which  the  surface  was  covered,  were  a 
mixture  of  all  preceding  soils,  and  therefore  fitted  for  the  imme- 
diate renewal  of  vegetation.  Horticulture  and  agriculture,  espe- 
cially the  cultivation  of  the  vine,  (which  needs  little  besides  sand, 
and  sun,  and  moisture,  to  make  it  grow,)  might  therefore  have 
been  resumed  immediately.  As  vegetation  increased,  the  soil 
would  of  course  improve  in  fertility,  by  a  natural  process  of  ma- 
nuring. 

SUBSIDENCE    OF    THE    DILUVIAL    OCEAN. 

The  retiring  waters  of  the  Noachic  deluge  occupied  half  a  year 
in  their  descent ;  and  thus  time  was  allowed,  for  that  gradual  and 
comparatively  tranquil  deposit  and  arrangement  of  the  ruins  of 
the  surface,  of  which  we  every  where  find  the  most  decisive  evi- 
dence.! 


*  Nor  does  the  diluvial  action,  violent  as  we  have  supposed  it  to  be,  necessarily 
imply  the  extirpation  of  every  plant;  an  olive  may  have  been  plucked  from  the  tree 
in  place,  protected  by  some  peculiar  circumstances  of  situation. 

t  Taking  the  Himmaleh  mountains  as  the  measure  of  the  height  of  the  deluge,- it 
fell  at  the  rate  of  about  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  in  twenty-four  hours,  or  a  little 
less  than  six  feet  in  an  hour — which,  although  a  rapid  descent  for  a  common  tide,  was 
slow,  compared  with  the  ascent  of  the  diluvial  waters;  &  partial  deluge,  pervading 
the  earth  for  a  year,  could  not  have  happened ;  it  must  have  flowed  all  round  the 
globe.  Statical  principles  forbid  us  to  suppose  that  it  was  accumulated  over  a  part  of 
the  world,  and  not  over  the  whole.  I  know  not  on  what  authority,  physical  or  his- 
torical, any  person  is  permitted  to  say,  that  its  elevation  was  less,  than  to  cover  "all 
the  high  hills  and  mountains  under  the  whole  heaven." 


96  THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION. 

Nothing  in  geology  has  struck  me  with  more  interest,  than  the, 
beautiful  arrangement,  in  strata,  of  the  beds  of  sand,  gravel,  clay, 
loam  and  pebbles,  which  may  be  observed  in  every  country.  A 
section  of  a  bank  of  any  of  these  deposits — or  better  still,  an 
avulsion  or  fall,  which  leaves  the  stratification  exposed,  without 
being  obscured,  by  the  rubbish,  produced  by  digging,  or  by  the 
sliding  of  loose  sand — never  fails  to  exhibit  the  effects  of  sedi- 
mentary deposit.;  sometimes  horizontal — sometimes  inclined  at 
various  angles,  great  or  small — sometimes  undulatory,  and  re- 
cording, in  a  language  that  cannot  be  misunderstood,  the  effects 
of  subsiding  water.  The  beds  are  not  .always  in  the  order  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  parts.  Sometimes  coarser  gravel,  or  even  peb- 
bles, will  form  a  layer,  above  fine  sand,  and  then  perhaps  the  or- 
der will  be  reversed,  indicating  that  there  were  currents,  and 
these,  relenting  and  increasing,  alternately,  as  they  were  impell- 
ed, probably  by  tides  or  storms,  so  that  coarser  or  finer  materials 
were  transported  and  deposited,  as  the  waters  were  more  or  less 
agitated  ;  for  currents  must  have  existed  to  the  last.  Could  these 
sedimentary  deposits  be  now  all  removed,  we  should  see  the 
naked,  scarred,  and  devastated  skeleton  of  the  planet,  exhibiting 
the  most  decisive  proof  that  it  had  been  swept  by  violence,  of 
which  we  find  evident  marks  in  the  scratches  and  furrows,  found 
in  the  fixed  rocks,  that  are  covered  by  diluvium. 

If  a  section  of  the  deepest  diluvium  could  be  made  quite  down 
to  the  solid  rock,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  that,  on  the  whole,  the 
magnitude  of  the  parts  would  correspond  with  the  depth,  and  the 
larger  fragments  of  these  loose  materials  would  often  be  found 
at  the  bottom.  This  does  not  render  it  improbable,  that  bowl- 
der stones  should  be  occasionally  deposited  on  the  surface,  es- 
pecially when  they  are  found  on  the  firmer  materials,  or  on 
rocky  ledges. 

SUBSIDENCE    OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    OCEAN. 

If  it  was  necessary  that  the  diluvial  ocean  should  retire  with 
moderation,  it  was  indispensable  that  the  primitive  ocean  should 


THE  DELUGE  AND  DILUVIAL  ACTION.  97 

decline  with  extreme  slowness,  in  order  to  give  time  for  the  various 
arrangements  of  firm  materials,  which  were  going  on,  and  for  the 
consolidation  of  the  fragmentary  and  petrifaction  rocks,  with 
their  extraneous  contents  of  organized  bodies,  both  vegetable  and 
animal.  We  have  no  reason  to  suppose,  that  there  was  any  mi- 
raculous interference  to  get  rid  of  the  water,  and  indeed  the  in- 
numerable marine  races,  found  in  the  rocks,  prove  its  presence, 
during  the  gradual  progress  of  their  lives,  death,  and  sepulture. 
A  rapid  retreat  of  the  waters  would  have  been  entirely  inconsis- 
tent with  this  state  of  things;  it  could  have  produced  no  other  than 
the  most  destructive  effects,  and,  instead  of  fitting  the  earth  to  be- 
come the  abode  of  living  beings,  and  of  man,  their  lord,  would 
have  exhibited  only  a  scene  of  the  most  frightful  devastation,  and 
a  long  time  must  have  passed  after  the  event,  before  it  could 
have  become  habitable. 

As  the  waters  of  the  primeval  ocean,  after  the  mountains  and 
hills  began  to  be  uncovered,  would  be  pent  up  and  forced  into 
sluices  and  narrow  passes,  the  rapidity  and  devastating  effects  of 
the  currents  would  have  been  greatly  augmented,  and  for  a  time 
progressively  so,  as  the  waters  descended.* 


*  It  is  obvious,  that  the  retreat  of  the  waters  could  not,  upon  physical  laws,  have 
been  so  rapid,  as  to  have  been  compassed,  with  safety,  to  the  surface,  within  three 
natural  days,  the  period  that  must  be  allotted  to  it  by  those  who  understand  the  ac- 
count of  the  time  in  the  common  sense ;  for  two  days  had  passed,  before  the  tops  of 
the  mountains  appeared,  and  every  thing  was  finished  on  the  evening  of  the  fifth 
day,  at  least,  to  such  an  extent,  that  the  ground  was  dry  enough,  to  be  fitted  for  the 
reception  of  man,  and  of  the  terrestrial  animals,  which  were  created  the  next  day. 

Now  the  Himmaleh  mountains  are  nearly  twenty-six  thousand  feet  high  ;  proba- 
bly, they  were  then  considerably  higher,  perhaps  twenty-seven  thousand;  as  every 
thing  on  the  surface,  indicates  that  the  mountains  have  been  much  degraded  by  the 
wear  of  time.  The  drainage  of  the  earth,  to  have  been  accomplished  in  three  days, 
upon  the  supposition  of  twenty-seven  thousand  feet  elevation,  would  have  required 
a  descent  of  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  in  an  hour,  or  nine  thousand  in 
twenty-four  hours ;  or,  if  these  mountains  were  only  twenty-six  thousand  feet  high, 
the  drainage  must  have  been  at  the  rate  of  more  than  three  hundred  and  sixty  feet 
in  an  hour,  or  over  eight  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  in  twenty -four  hours, 
or  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  feet  in  the  time  of  the  descent  of  a  com- 
mon tide. 

13 


98  VOLCANOS. 

The  difficulty  would  not  be  diminished  by  the  supposition  that 
the  mountains  were  elevated  from  the  bottom  of  the  ancient 
ocean,  for,  if  they  rose  within  the  time  of  a  few  days,  the  effects 
on  the  waters  would  have  been  still  more  violent ;  if  they  were 
rising  gradually  during  an  indefinitely  long  period,  this  supposition 
concedes  the  very  point  in  discussion.  Every  geological  theory 
supposes  the  mountains  to  have  been  in  existence,  before  the 
earth  was  habitable,  and  the  Mosaic  history  necessarily  implies 
the  same  fact. 

XXX.— VOLCANOS.* 

Among  the  physical  phenomena  of  our  planet,  none  arrest  the 
attention  of  its  inhabitants  more  forcibly,  than  those  connected 
with  earthquakes  and  volcanos.  These  tremendous  displays  of 
power  cannot  fail  to  interest  even  barbarous  nations,  who  consid- 
er volcanic  craters  as  the  residence  of  demons,  and  their  erup- 
tions as  the  demonstrations  of  their  anger,  and  as  the  means  em- 
ployed by  them  to  spread  destruction.  The  missionaries  in 
Owyhee,  (Hawaii,)!  have  given  us  a  very  interesting  account  of 
the  goddess  Pele,  and  of  the  highly  poetical  mythology,  which  the 
natives  have  built  upon  her  supposed  dominion. 

It  is  not  surprising,  that  such  terrific  appearances  should  be 
imputed  by  barbarians,  to  the  agency  of  a  local  deity,  and  that 
the  visitations  of  earthquakes  and  volcanos,  should  be  regarded 
as  malignant  and  vindictive  inflictions. 

Much  of  the  poetical  machinery  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
was  fabricated  out  of  physical  -phenomena.  The  struggles  of  the 
Titans,  buried  beneath  the  mountains,  by  the  anger  of  the  gods, 
were  assigned  by  poetry,  as  the  causes  of  the  earthquakes  of  Ita- 
ly, and  Vulcan  and  the  Cyclops,  according  to  the  annals  of  fa- 


*  This  introductory  notice  of  volcanos,  is  taken,  principally,  from  the  Am.  Journal 
of  Science,  Vols.  XIII.  and  XiV.  having  been  prepared  by  the  editor  of  that,  and 
the  author  of  the  present  work. 

t  See  Ellis'  Tour,  and  the  analysis  of  it,  Vol.  XI.  p.  1.  of  the  American  Journal, 


VOLCANOS.  99 

ble,  forged  their  thunder  bolts  in  the  bowels  of  Etna  and  of  the 
neighboring  Lipari  islands. 

But  in  modern  times,  since  the  exact  sciences  have  received 
so  much  attention,  volcanos  have  been  studied  with  a  philosoph- 
ical spirit.  Sir  William  Hamilton,  Spallanzani,  Ordinaire,  Bries- 
lak,  Brocchi,  Humboldt,  Von  Buch,  Beudant,  Mackenzie,  Monti- 
celli,  De  la  Torre,  Bory  St.  Vincent,  Webster,  Srrope,  Daubeny, 
and  others,  have  given  us  accurate  statements  of  facts,  and  have 
reasoned  upon  them,  with  direct  reference  to  the  present  state  of 
physical  science. 

To  Mr.  Scrope,  and  Professor  Daubeny,  we  are  particularly 
indebted,  for  recent  and  very  valuable  observations  and  discus- 
sions. Mr.  Scrope  published,  in  1 825,  his  "  Considerations  on 
Volcanos,"  and, more  recently,  his  "Memoir  on  the  Geology  of 
Central  France."  Professor  Daubeny  has  also  very  recently  pub- 
lished his  "  Description  of  active  and  extinct  Volcanos." 

All  these  works  are  of  great  value,  and  as  they  have  not  been 
republished  in  this  country,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  refer  the 
reader,  who  may  not  possess  the  original  works,  to  very  full  anal- 
yses of  them,  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  volumes  of  the 
American  Journal  of  Science. 

While  we  entertain  and  express  the  highest  respect  for  the  au- 
thors of  the  works  alluded  to  above,  we  wish  to  be  understood, 
to  attach  the  principal  value  to  their  precise,  methodized,  and 
copious  statements  of  facts ;  with  most  of  their  conclusions  we 
do,  indeed,  fully  agree,  but  there  are  theoretical  points  in  these 
discussions,  which  will  probably  never  be  settled,  and  about 
which  there  will  continue  to  be  a  diversity  of  opinion. 

Definition  of  a  Volcano. 

Professor  Daubeny  states  the  following  distinction  between 
active  and  extinct  volcanos— the  former  includes  all  those  which 
have  been  eruptive  at  any  time  since  the  existence  of  authentic 
records — the  latter,  those  that  have,  within  the  same  limits  of 


100  VOLCANOS. 

time,  exhibited  no  signs  of  activity,  although  incontestably  of  the 
same  origin. 

Thus,  although  a  mountain  should  not  exhibit  a  crater,  and 
the  usual  figure  and  stratification  of  a  volcano, — if  its  materials 
have  "a  vitreous  aspect  and  fracture,  together  with  a  cellular 
structure — cells  generally  empty,  and  elongated  in  the  same  di- 
rection, and,  if  they  have  a  glazed,  internal  appearance,"  there 
need  be  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  that  the  materials  are  of 
volcanic  origin. 

1 .  Extinct  Volcanos  of  France  and  Germany. 

Much  philosophical  scepticism  formerly  existed  with  respect  to 
extinct  volcanos.  They  were  vaguely  referred  to,  but  without 
decisive  proof  of  their  real  volcanic  origin  ;  and  many  persons, 
very  imperfectly  qualified  to  judge  of  such  questions,  were  suffi- 
ciently inclined  to  infer  the  existence  of  volcanos  of  former  ages, 
wherever  they  saw  a  conical  hill,  or  almost  any  hill,  with  a  hol- 
low on  its  summit,  and  porous  stones,  of  whatever  kind,  were  re- 
ferred to  a  similar  origin.  It  was  a  very  imposing  and  sublime 
idea,  that  volcanic  fire,  still  active  in  our  planet,  and  still  bursting 
forth,  in  many  places,  with  destructive  energy,  had,  in  ages  long 
past,  exerted  agencies  still  more  extensive — covering  provinces 
with  ruins,  and  operating,  even  in  the  bed  of  the  primeval  oceans. 
The  speculation  seemed,  however,  to  claim  quite  as  much  affini- 
ty with  poetical,  as  with  philosophical  conceptions,  and,  it  was 
not  till  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  that  the  subject  of  extinct 
volcanos  began  to  be  investigated  with  accuracy  and  skill. 

The  much  disputed  country  of  Auvergne,  Velay,  and  Viverais, 
in  France,  has  been  often  visited,  and  examined  by  able  geolo- 
gists, and  we  believe,  that  within  a  few  years  past,  no  one  of  them 
has  left  that  region,  without  being  convinced  that  it  is  of  volcanic 
origin.  The  celebrated  geologist,  D'Aubuisson,  visited  the  coun- 
try in  question,  with  the  strongest  belief,  that  he  should  find  this 
district  of  Neptunian  origin,  but  he  returned  a  convert  to  the  op- 
posite opinion  ;  a  change,  the  more  creditable  to  his  candor,  and 


VOLCANOS.  101 

to  the  vigor  of  his  mind,  because  he  had  before  published  an  able 
and  interesting  treatise,  to  prove  that  basalt,  and  especially  the 
basalt  of  Saxony,  was  of  aqueous  formation. 

The  volcanic  district  of  France,  lies  upon  the  river  Rhone, 
nearly  in  the  angle  formed  by  it  with  the  Mediterranean,  and 
covers  an  area  nearly  square,  of  from  forty  to  fifty  leagues  in  di- 
ameter. 

We  have  never  visited  that  country,  but  the  evidence  of  its 
volcanic  origin,  exhibited  by  Mr.  Scrope  and  Professor  Daubeny, 
confirming,  extending,  and  giving  precision  to  the  observations  of 
many  previous  writers,  leaves  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  the 
tremendous  subterraneous  agency  of  fire  has  covered  this  fine 
country  with  floods  of  molten  rock ;  no  more  doubt,  indeed, 
than  that  similar  events  have  happened  at  Vesuvius,  Cotopaxi, 
and  j£tna. 

With  the  aid  of  a  fine  series  of  specimens,  from  this  very  re- 
gion ;*  with  the  full  descriptions  of  the  authors  whom  we  have 
just  named,  and  with  the  noble  atlas — geological — geographical, 
and  picturesque,  of  Mr.  Scrope,  illustrating  the  striking  features 
of  this  interesting  region — we  feel  the  fullest  conviction,  that 
their  conclusions  are  substantially  correct ;  and  we  can  easily  im- 
agine, that  we  see  the  floods  of  lava,  pouring  from  the  now  quiet 
and  cold  craters,  and  that  the  skies  of  that  part  of  France  were 
once  dimmed  by  the  clouds  of  volcanic  ashes,  as  those  of  Italy 
are  at  the  present  day. 

Craters,  regularly  formed,  often  entire,  sometimes  with  the  thin 
and  scorified  edge  of  the  lip  in  fine  preservation,  and  occasional- 
ly of  vast  dimensions  ;  here,  black,  rugged  and  scathed  with  fire  ; 
there,  overgrown  with  trees,  and  there,  filled  with  water,  forming 
lakes ;  currents  of  lava,  lying  where  they  flowed  from  the  crater, 
or  where  they  burst  from  the  side  or  foot  of  the  ruptured  moun- 
tain, extending  many  miles,  and  many  leagues,  traceable  directly 
to  their  parent  mountain,  winding  along  the  gorges  and  the  sinu- 


*  Furnished  to  the  cabinet  of  the  American  Geological  Society,  by  our  celebrated 
geologist,  Mr.  William  Maclure. 


102  VOLCANOS. 

osities  of  the  vallies,  now  and  then  diverted  from  their  course  by 
rocks,  hills,  and  other  obstacles ;  sometimes  damming  up  rivers, 
whose  courses  they  have  crossed  or  obstructed,  and  thus  forming 
lakes  of  considerable  dimensions;  exhibiting  all  the  varieties  of 
lithoid  lava,  from  that  which  is  compact  and  rock-like,  to  that 
which  is  porous  and  vesicular  in  an  incipient,  or  in  a  prevailing 
degree  ;  crowned  or  mixed  with  slag,  scoriae,  pumice,  olivine  and 
other  exuvia?  of  known  and  active  volcanos ;  displaying  frequent- 
ly a  structure,  now  spherical,  ovoidal  and  concentric ;  now  pris- 
matic and  columnar,  and  fronting  streams,  and  bounding  valleys, 
with  ranges  of  columns,  equalling  or  rivalling  the  regularity  of 
the  famous  colonnades  of  Fingal's  cave,  and  the  Giant's  Cause- 
way ;  these  are  a  few  of  the  most  striking  features  of  these  coun- 
tries, which  are  so  affluent  in  proofs  of  their  igneous  origin,  that 
there  is  nothing  needed,  but  to  select  carefully  and  judiciously, 
those  facts  which  will  be  the  most  decisive,  especially  with  re- 
spect to  minds  not  familiar  with  such  contemplations. 

The  volcanos  of  the  Auvergne,  &c.  are  regarded  as  of  differ- 
ent ages  ;  some  appear  to  have  been  active  before  the  formation 
of  the  present  valleys,  and  some  since  ;  where  the  currents  of  la- 
va have  been  cut  through,  by  those  causes  which  formed  the 
present  valleys,  they  are  obviously  older  than  the  valleys,  and 
where  these  currents  have  flowed  into  valleys,  beds  of  rivers,  &c. 
they  are  as  obviously  of  a  more  recent  date. 

Although  the  local  geographical  names  may  be  supposed  to 
allude  to  the  former  character  of  the  country,  as  Auvergne, 
(Avernus,)  Vallee  d'Enfer,  &c.  still,  it  is  thought  that  these  names 
convey  no  allusion  to  historical  events,  but  rather  to  the  actual 
appearance  of  the  surface. 

Although  the  formation  of  these  volcanic  regions  was  anterior 
to  the  records  of  history,  it  was  evidently  in  the  most  recent  por- 
tions, posterior  to  the  existence  of  organized  beings,  which  are 
fouqd  imbedded  in  the  volcanic  tufa. 


VOLCANOS.  103 


Principal  Volcanic  Phenomena. 

u  They  are  commonly  preceded  by  earthquakes  of  different  de- 
grees of  intensity  and  duration,  and  with  loud  sounds  or  detona- 
tions, resembling  the  noise  of  ordnance  and  musketry,  apparently 
produced  by  the  disengagement  of  aeriform  fluids,  and  the  in- 
crease of  bulk  in  the  fluid  rocks  ;  and  their  sounds  are  conveyed 
through  the  solid  earth,  not  by  means  of  the  air.  The  atmos- 
phere, at  this  time,  is  remarked  to  be  in  a  peculiar  state  of  still- 
ness, attended  by  a  sense  of  oppression. 

"  During  this  period,  also,  springs  are  apt  to  disappear,  so  that 
wells  become  dry  ;  and  it  is  known  that  the  extent  of  this  affection 
is  sometimes  very  considerable. 

"  When  the  eruption  first  appears,  it  is  generally  with  sudden 
and  great  violence.  Explosions,  apparently  from  confined  air, 
take  place  with  loud  noises,  and  succeeding  each  other  with  ra- 
pidity, and  often  with  increasing  force  ;  the  vent  being,  common- 
ly, the  central  point  or  crater  of  the  mountain.  And  in  its  at- 
tempt to  escape,  this  air  throws  up  fragments  of  rock,  which 
sometimes  fall  back  into  the  crater,  and  are  again  repeatedly 
projected,  together  with  clouds  of  aqueous  vapor.  And  as  the 
fragments  also  are  often  broken  into  small  pieces,  and  even  into 
dust,  this,  uniting  to  the  vapor,  or  mixing  with  it,  produces  dense 
black  clouds,  or  smoke,  often  assuming  the  form  of  a  column  of 
entangled  or  successively  formed  clouds. 

"  Having  arrived  at  a  certain  height,  this  column  generally 
spreads  laterally  or  horizontally,  forming,  if  the  air  is  calm,  a 
shape,  resembling  that  of  a  pine-tree,  or  if  there  be  wind,  a  hori- 
zontal stream.  Out  of  this  cloud  proceed  lightnings  of  great 
vividness,  while  the  falling  of  the  dust,  added  to  the  density  of 
the  cloud,  produces  darkness  over  the  surrounding  country.  The 
melted  rock  or  lava  now  boils  up  in  the  crater,  and  is  often  so 
thrown  up  into  jets  by  the  extricated  air,  as  to  resemble  flames ; 
and  at  length  it  either  boils  over  the  edge  of  the  crater,  so  as  to 
run  down  the  mountain,  or  else  finds  an  issue  laterally,  by  some 


104  VOLCANOS. 

crevice,  equally  flowing  down  in  a  stream,  which  holds  its  course 
as  circumstances  permit,  down  to  the  lower  grounds. 

"  In  the  night  this  current  is  luminous ;  but  in  the  day,  it  is 
generally  obscured  by  vapors,  or  loses  its  light  by  the  cooling  and 
blackening  of  the  surface.  There  are  cases,  however,  in  which 
no  torrent  of  lava  occurs,  and  where  no  other  rocks  than  scoriae 
are  erupted.  The  greatest  period  of  violence  is  generally  over 
when  the  lava  has  flowed  for  a  little  while,  or  this  is  the  crisis  of 
the  volcano.  But  commonly,  the  explosions  of  fragments  and 
dust  continue  for  some  time,  gradually  diminishing,  till  the  whole 
falls  into  a  state  of  quiescence,  and  is  finally  extinguished.  Last- 
ly, it  must  be  noticed,  that  from  the  action  of  the  volcano  on  the 
atmosphere,  clouds  are  generally  formed  in  it,  which  produce 
falls  of  rain,  often  causing  torrents,  or  even  inundations. 

"  The  intervals  of  repose  are  various,  reaching  in  some  cases 
as  far  as  to  many  centuries ;  so  that  cultivation  and  population 
are  renewed,  to  be  dispersed  again  at  some  future  day.  In  these 
intervals  of  repose,  however,  it  is  common  for  vapors  to  continue 
to  be  produced,  either  from  the  craters,  or  in  the  course  of  the 
currents  of  lava ;  and  when  these  are  sulphureous,  they  deposit 
sulphur  ;  and  in  other  cases,  from  their  acid  nature,  they  corrode 
and  decompose  the  rocks  through  which  they  find  a  vent.  What 
are  called  solfataras  and  souffrieres  are  the  result."* 

The  display  of  electrical  phenomena  during  volcanic  eruptions 
is  often  very  brilliant ;  Mr.  Scrope  remarks  that  this  was  the  fact 
with  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  in  October,  1822.  "From  every 
part  of  the  immense  cloud  of  ashes  which  hung  suspended  over 
the  mountain,  flashes  of  forked  lightning  darted  continually. 
They  proceeded  in  greatest  numbers  from  the  edges  of  the  cloud. 
They  did  not  consist,  as  in  the  case  of  a  thunderstorm,  of  a  single 
zigzag  streak  of  light ;  but  a  great  many  coruscations  of  this  kind 
appeared  suddenly  to  dart  in  many  directions  from  a  central 
point." 

*  Jour.  Roy.  Inst.  No.  40,  p.  356. 


VOLCANOS.  105 

Stromboli  appears  to  have  been  in  ceaseless  activity  for  at  least 
twenty  centuries,  throwing  out,  not  flames  nor  lava,  but  scoria?. 
It  is  most  violent  before  and  during  stormy  weather,  especially  in 
winter,  when  lava  is  said  to  burst  occasionally  from  its  side  into 
the  sea,  heating  it  to  such  a  degree  as  to  destroy  the  fish,  which 
are  cast  on  shore  ready  boiled. 

This  volcano  is  viewed  by  the  fishermen  as  a  weather  glass,  by 
which  they  augur  the  approach  of  tempests. 

The  volcano  in  the  island  of  Nicaragua,  called,  by  the  sailors, 
the  Devil's  Mouth,  is  said  to  be  constantly  active,  and  this  appears 
to  be  nearly  the  case  also,  with  that  of  Kirauea,  in  the  island  of 
Owyhee,  (Hawaii,)  but  these  instances  are  very  rare. 

Many  volcanos  are  in  a  state  of  moderate  activity,  with  occa- 
sional paroxysms.  Vesuvius  was  in  this  condition  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  to  October,  1822,  when  there  was 
a  violent  eruption.  A  similar  state  of  things  existed  from  1767 
to  1779,  when  a  violent  eruption  gave  vent  to  the  force. 

^Etna  was  eruptive  with  intermediate  agitations  in  1805-9-11 
-12  and  19,  but  both  these  volcanos  have  had  periods  of  long  re- 
pose, even  for  centuries. 

Popocatepetl,  in  Mexico,  has  been  active  ever  since  the  con- 
quest of  Mexico,  and  that  of  Sangay  in  Quito,  has  been  in  inces- 
sant activity  for  about  one  hundred  years. 

Mr.  Scrope  mentions  as  instances  of  remarkable  volcanic  par- 
oxysms, those  of  Vesuvius,  A.  D.  79,  203,  472,  512,  685,  993, 
1036,  1139,  1306,  1631,  1760,  1794  and  1822. 

jEtna,  in  1169,  1329,  1535;  this  latter  eruption  lasted  two 
years  "  with  terrific  violence,"  and  occurred  after  a  quiescence  of 
nearly  one  hundred  years. 

Teneriffe,  in  1704,  1797-8. 

San  Georgio,  one  of  the  Azores,  in  1 808. 

Palma,  one  of  the  Canaries,  in  1558,  1646  and  1777. 

Lanzerote,  one  of  the  same  group,  in  1730. 

Kattlagia  Jokul,  in  Iceland,  in  1755,  which  lasted  a  year. 

Skaptar  Jokuhl,  in  1783. 


<*&»^?\ 

*4afikS? 


106  VOLCANOS. 

Violent  eruptions  are  generally  succeeded  by  periods  of  long 
repose,  sometimes  extending  even  to  centuries.  Decomposed 
lava  forms  a  soil  even  in  the  crater,  and  vegetation  springs  up. 

"  All  appearances  of  igneous  action  are  effaced  ;  forests  grow 
up  and  decay,  and  cultivation  is  carried  on  upon  a  surface,  destin- 
ed, perhaps,  to  be  blown  to  atoms,  and  scattered  to  the  winds, 
when  the  crisis  arrives  for  the  renewal  of  the  volcanic  phenome- 
na. Thus  during  the  quiescent  interval,  between  the  eruptions 
of  11 39  and  1 306,  the  whole  surface  of  Vesuvius  was  in  cultiva- 
tion, and  pools  of  water  and  chesnut  groves  occupied  the  sides 
and  bottom  of  the  crater ;  as  is  at  present  the  case  with  so  many 
of  the  craters  of  ^Etna,  Auvergne,  the  Viverais,  &c. 

"  Terrific  eruptions  occasionally  break  out  from  mountains  not 
previously  suspected  to  be  of  a  volcanic  nature,  or  in  which  the 
accounts,  of  former  catastrophes  of  this  sort,  existed  but  as  vague 
traditionary  fables." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  examples  of  the  explosion  of  an 
entire  volcanic  mountain,  happened  in  1688,  in  the  island  of  Ti- 
mor, one  of  the  Moluccas. 

The  whole  mountain  which  was  before  this  continually  active, 
and  so  high  that  its  light  was  visible,  it  is  said,  three  hundred 
miles  off,  was  blown  up  and  replaced  by  a  concavity  now  con- 
taining a  lake. 

Theories,  suggested  anterior  to  the  discovery  of  Galvanism  and 
the  Metals  of  the  fixed  Alkalies  and  Earths. 

It  is  necessary,  to  occupy  very  little  time,  either  in  reciting 
or  discussing  these  obsolete  theories.  We  wish,  however,  not 
to  treat  them,  or  their  authors,  with  contempt ;  for  they  were, 
perhaps,  the  best  that  the  then  existing  state  of  science  pre- 
sented. 

"  According  to  the  first  and  most  ancient  of  these,  volcanos 
were  attributed  to  the  combustion  of  certain  inflammables,  simi- 
lar to  those  which  exist  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  sulphur,  beds  of  coal,  and  the  like;  and,  in  order  to  ac- 
count for  the  spontaneous  inflammation  of  these  substances,  an 


VOLCANOS.  107 

appeal  was  often  made  to  an  experiment  of  Lemery,  which 
went  to  prove,  that  mixtures  of  sulphur  and  iron,  sunk  in  the 
ground,  and  exposed  to  the  influence  of  humidity,  would  give  out 
sufficient  heat  to  pass  gradually  into  a  state  of  combustion,  and 
to  set  fire  to  any  bodies  that  were  near." 

Brieslak  supposed,  that  volcanos  are  produced  by  petroleum, 
collected  in  subterranean  caverns,  and  kindled  in  some  unknown 
way.  Brieslak  has  shewn,  that  petroleum  is  very  abundant  in  the 
globe ;  a  conclusion  which  has  been  still  further  extended  by  the 
researches  of  Hon.  George  Knox.*  It  appears,  that  petroleum 
is  found,  abundantly,  in  the  vicinity  of  volcanos,  and  that  it  is  ex- 
haled during  their  eruptions.  The  uniform  presence  of  sulphur 
also,  in  volcanos,  and  its  copious  exhalation,  during  their  state  of 
activity,  seem  to  countenance  the  general  idea,  that  they  may 
arise  from  the  burning  of  combustibles. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  this  theory,  however  plausible, 
appears  untenable. 

1.  The  quantity  of  any  of  the  ordinary  combustibles,  which 
could  be  supposed  to  be  present  in  any  one  place,  would  be  total- 
ly inadequate  to  the  effect.     Reasoning,  analogically,  from  our 
knowledge  of  other  parts  of  the  world — what  supply  of  coal,  bitu- 
men, or  sulphur  could  be  adequate  to  sustain  the  fires  of  Vesuvi- 
us, or  of  Etna,  of  Hecla,  of  Cotopaxi,  of  Teneriffe,  of  Sumbawa, 
or  of  Kirauea!     The  most  powerful  beds  of  coal,  are  but  a  few 
yards  in  thickness,  and  a  few  miles  in  extent.     A  few  capital  ope- 
rations of  any  principal  volcano,  would  soon  destroy  the  greatest 
existing  bed  of  combustibles,  and  instead  of  continuing  from  age 
to  age,  as  many  of  them  do,  all  would  soon  be  exhausted  by  the 
intenseness  of  their  own  energy,  and  the  consumption  of  their 
inadequate  magazines  of  fuel. 

2.  There  are  many  volcanic  countries,  (indeed  most  are  of  this 
description,)  where  the  geological  structure  and  associations  are 
such,  as  to  forbid  the  existence  of  coal,  the  only  combustible,  suf- 
ficiently abundant  to  countenance  such  a  theory.     We  should 

*  (?ee  Vol.  XII.  p.  147,  of  the  American  Journal. 


108  VOLCANOS. 

look  in  vain  for  many  active  volcanos,  in  countries  of  the  coal 
formation,  or  of  the  anthracite  series.  Although  volcanic  fires, 
occasionally  force  a  passage  through  any  and  every  species  of  for- 
mation, there  is  reason  to  believe  that  they  are  deep  seated — 
probably  even'in  the  primitive  rocks,  and  in  granite  itself,  where, 
of  course,  there  is  no  coal  and  little  sulphur. 

3.  When  also  (in  the  language  of  our  author,)  "  we  examine 
more  narrowly  into  the  analogies  between  the  effects  of  volcanic 
fires,  and  of  those  which  we  know  to  result  from  the  combustion 
of  either  of  these  materials,  we  are  soon  brought  to  confess  the 
inadequacy  of  such  an  hypothesis  to  account  for  the  facts  before 
us.     What  resemblance,  for  example,  do  the  porcelain-jaspers 
and  other  pseudo-volcanic  rocks,  as  they  are  improperly  termed, 
which  we  observe  in  coal  mines,  that  have  been  for  centuries  in 
a  state  of  inflammation,  bear  to  the  lavas  and  the  ejected  masses 
of  a  genuine  volcano ;  or  where  do  we  observe  from  them  the 
same  evolution  of  aeriform  fluids,  and  of  streams  of  melted  ma- 
terials which  are  so  characteristic  of  the  latter  ?" 

4.  The  fermentation  of  pyrites  and  the  combustion  of  sulphur 
and  bitumen  and  coal,  do,  without  doubt  produce  certain  effects, 
and  sometimes  those  that  are  considerable ;  still  these  causes  are 
totally  inadequate  to  account  for  the  prodigious  extent,  incon- 
ceivable energy,  indefinite  continuance,  and  successive  reproduc- 
tion, of  volcanic  phenomena. 

It  is  plainly  impossible,  that  such  results  should  take  their  ori- 
gin from  a  few  comparatively  trifling  beds  of  common  combusti- 
bles, and  we  must  obviously  seek  for  other  causes  more  extensive 
and  more  powerful ;  and  which  are  not  limited  in  their  range, 
their  energy,  or  their  capability  of  reproduction. 

5.  Gny  Lussac  urged,  with  much  force,  against  the  theory  of 
burning  combustibles  being  the  cause  of  volcanic  action,  that 
the  atmosphere  cannot  possibly  penetrate  to  those  seats  of  vol- 
canic power,  when  there  is  brought  into  action  a  pressure  capa- 
ble of  raising  a  column  of  melted  lava,  three  times  as  heavy  as 
water,  to  the  elevation  of  one  mile  or  several  miles.     The  objec- 
tion seems  unanswerable,  as  far  as  the  atmosphere  is  concerned : 


VOLCANOS. 

although  we  may  suppose,  that  the  combustion  is  sustained  by 
water,  provided  there  are  combustibles  capable  of  decomposing 
that  fluid,  which  would  not  be  the  fact,  with  either  of  the  com- 
bustibles named,  except  coal,  and  that  only  at  the  temperature  of 
intense  ignition,  which  must  not  only  be  produced,  but  must  also 
be  sustained  in  some  other  way,  as  the  affusion  of  water  upon  ig- 
nited coal,  unless  there  is  also  a  copious  supply  of  air,  soon  puts 
an  end  to  the  combustion. 

Earthquakes,  fyc. 

"  Some  are  unwilling  to  admit  earthquakes,  as  any  probable 
indication  of  subterranean  fire,  whilst  others  not  only  include 
them,  but  go  so  far  as  to  class  hot  springs,  gaseous  exhalations, 
and  the  eruptions  of  mud  and  petroleum  amongst  volcanic  phe- 
nomena." 

Do  earthquakes  and  volcanos  depend  upon  the  same  cause  ? 
On  this  point,  we  conceive,  that  there  can  scarcely  be  any  ground 
for  hesitation. 

Volcanic  eruptions  are  invariably  preceded,  and  accompanied 
by  earthquakes,  and  when  the  volcano  discharges  its  contents, 
the  earthquakes  immediately  relent,  and  ultimately  cease.  It  is 
plain,  therefore,  that  those  causes  which  produce  volcanos  do 
also  produce  earthquakes.  But,  it  will  be  asked  may  not  earth- 
quakes be  produced  by  other  causes  ?  To  this  inquiry  we  must 
answer,  that  we  know  not  of  any  other  causes  that  are  sufficient 
to  produce  earthquakes,  except  those  which  modern  science  has 
assigned  as  the  causes  of  volcanos,  and,  as  these  are,  agreeably 
to  the  Newtonian  rule,  "  both  true  and  sufficient"  we  are  bound 
to  admit  them,  at  least  till  other  and  more  probable  causes  can 
be  suggested. 

"  When  we  observe  two  volcanic  districts,  both  subject  to  earth- 
quakes, which  are  ascertained  to  have  a  connexion  with  the  vol- 
canic action  going  on,  and  find  that  an  intermediate  country,  in 
which  there  are  no  traces  of  the  operation  of  fire,  is  agitated  by 
subterraneous  convulsions,  similar  in  kind,  but  stronger  in  degree 
than  those  which  occur  in  the  more  immediate  vicinity  of  the 


110  VOLCANOS. 

volcanos ;  have  we  not  reason  to  conclude,  that  the  same  actiou 
extends  throughout  the  whole  of  the  above  space,  and  that  it  is 
this  which  produces  in  the  intermediate  country  the  effects  allu- 
ded to,  which  are  only  the  more  alarming  from  the  absence  of 
any  natural  outlet,  from  which  elastic  vapours  might  escape  ? 

"Now  in  proof  of  the  former  of  these  positions,  it  may  be 
scarcely  necessary  to  do  more  than  appeal  to  the  case  of  Etna  or 
Vesuvius,  which  rarely  return  to  a  state  of  activity,  after  a  long 
interval  of  comparative  quiescence,  without  some  antecedent 
earthquake,  which  ceases  so  soon  as  the  mountain  has  establish- 
ed for  itself  a  vent.*  Such  was  the  case  before  the  celebrated 
eruption  of  79  in  Campania,  and  in  that  of  Etna  in  1537,  where, 
says  Fazzello,  noises  were  heard,  and  shocks  experienced,  over 
the  most  distant  parts  of  Sicily.  In  such  cases  no  one  would 
doubt  the  connexion  between  the  volcano  and  the  earthquake." 

TenerhTe,  furnished  with  the  volcanic  vent  of  Teyde,  enjoys 
comparative  immunity,  while  the  neighboring  islands  are  dread- 
fully agitated.  If  it  be  objected,  that  earthquakes  are  too  exten- 

*  Humboldt  gives  us  the  following  series  of  phenomena,  which  presented  them- 
selves on  the  American  Hemisphere  between  the  years  1796  and  97,  as  well  as  be- 
tween 1811  and  1812. 

1796. — September  27,    Eruption  in  the  West  India  Islands;  volcano  of  Guadaloupe 
in  activity. 

November The  volcano  of  Pasto  begins  to  emit  smoke. 

December  14.     Destruction  of  Cumana  by  earthquake. 

1797. — February  4.     Destruction  of  Riobamba  by  earthquake. 
1811. — January  30.    Appearance  of  Sabrina  Island  in  the  Azores.     It  increases  par- 
ticularly  on  the  15th  of  June. 

May Begining  of  the  earthquakes  in  the  Island  of  St.  Vincent,  which 

lasted  till  May,  1812. 

December  16.    Beginning  of  the  commotions  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Ohio,  which  lasted  till  1813. 

December Earthquake  at  Caraccas. 

1812. — March  26.     Destruction  of  Caraccas ;  earthquakes  which  continued  till  1813. 
April  30.     Eruption  of  the  volcano  in  St.  Vincent's ;  and  the  same  day  sub- 
terranean noises  at  Caraccas,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Apure. 

Pers.  Narr.  Vol.  IV. 

See  also  Gemellaro  on  the  Meteorological  Phenomena  of  Mount  Etna,  extracted 
in  the  London  Journal  of  Science,  Vol.  XIV,  1813. 


VOLCANOS,  1 1 1 

sive  to  have  their  effects  attributed  to  the  same  cause  with  volca- 
nos,  we  may  reply,  that  volcanic  movements  generally  accompa- 
ny or  succeed  them,  although  it  may  be  in  remote  countries,  and 
the  earthquakes  of  one  country  are  often  connected  with  those 
of  another. 

To  account  for  the  extent  to  which  the  vibration  of  the  solid 
substance  of  the  earth  will  communicate  both  shocks  and  sounds, 
Mons.  Gay  Lussac  ("  Annales  de  Chimie,"  &c.  Tome  xxii,  page 
429,)  remarks,  that  a  vibration  of  the  earth  is  similar  to  that  of 
the  air ;  that  it  is  a  powerful  undulation,  produced  in  the  mass 
of  the  earth,  by  some  commotion,  and  that  it  is  propagated,  with 
the  same  celerity  as  sound.  If  we  are  surprised  at  the  immense 
extent,  to  which  the  shock,  the  sound,  and  the  ravages  of  an 
earthquake  are  perceived,  we  may  be  instructed  by  considering, 
that  the  shock  produced  by  the  head  of  a  pin,  at  one  end  of  a  long 
beam,  is  distinctly  perceived  at  the  other,  in  consequence  of  a 
vibration  of  all  its  parts.  The  movement  of  a  carriage  upon  the 
pavements  shakes  vast  buildings,  and  is  communicated  through 
great  masses  of  matter,  as  in  the  deep  quarries  under  Paris.  M. 
Gay  Lussac  inquires,  therefore,  whether  it  is  astonishing,  that 
a  violent  commotion,  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  should  cause  it 
to  tremble  through  a  radius  of  many  hundred  leagues.  This 
philosopher  concludes,  that  earthquakes  are  the  result  of  the 
communication  of  a  commotion  through  the  mass  of  the  earth, 
so  independent  of  subterranean  caverns,  (which  some  have  sup- 
posed favorable  to  the  propagation  of  the  sound  and  motion)  that 
these  effects  will  be  propagated  the  more  extensively,  the  more 
homogeneous  the  materials  of  the  earth  are. 

Our  knowledge  of  elastic  agents  justifies  us  in  concluding,  that 
steam  and  gases,  in  a  word,  aeriform  agents,  as  the  immediate 
moving  power,  are  the  causes  of  volcanic  eruptions,  and  of  earth- 
quakes. When  evolved  rapidly  and  suddenly, — that  is,  in  very 
great  quantities,  in  a  given  short  time,  and  endowed  by  heat  with 
great  elastic  power,  they  have,  without  doubt,  sufficient  ener- 
gy to  rend  mountains,  to  raise  floods  of  fiery  lava— to  project  stones 
to  great  heights  in  the  atmosphere — to  rock  alpine  ridges,  on 
their  foundations,  to  heave  the  ocean  into  unwonted  undulations 


112  VOLCANOS. 

— to  shake  continents,  and  the  solid  globe  itself,  to  its  very  centre. 
The  effects  of  gunpowder,  of  fulminating  preparations,  and  of 
imprisoned  steam,  when  suddenly  liberated,  (now  so  familiar  to 
mankind,)  fully  justify  us  in  attributing  to  elastic  agents,  all  that 
we  have  done  in  this  statement. 

This  subject  has  been  fully  illustrated  by  Mr.  Scrope,  in  his 
Considerations  on  Volcanos.* 

Most  hot  springs  have  their  origin  from  volcanic  action. — Ma- 
ny that  are  not  connected  with  active  volcanic  regions  arise  from 
basaltic  rocks,  and  their  composition  is  observed  to  be  similar  to 
that  of  the  waters  of  volcanic  districts,  especially  in  their  con- 
taining soda  or  the  mineral  alkali.  It  is  possible  that  some  hot 
springs — as,  for  instance,  those  of  Bath  and  Bristol,  may  be  de- 
rived from  the  fermentation  of  pyrites,  or  from  other  chemical 
agencies,  generating  heat,  and  that  the  permanency  of  the  tem- 
perature may  arise  from  the  great  depth,  at  which  the  chemical 
action,  giving  origin  to  the  heat  is  sustained. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Water  is  a  great  agent  in  producing 

Volcanos. 

Mons.  Arago  enumerates  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  active 
volcanos,  nearly  all  of  which  are  situated  near  to  the  sea,  "  in 
islands  and  maritime  tracts." 

The  apparent  exceptions  are  few,  and  generally  when  exam- 
ined, they  will  not  prove  to  be  real. 

If  there  are,  as  is  stated,  but  not  fully  confirmed,  one  or  two 
volcanos  in  the  centre  of  Tartary,  they  may  communicate  with 
the  lakes  of  that  country,  some  of  which  are  saline. 

Jorulloi  in  Mexico,  is  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  the 
ocean — but  Colima,  on  the  Pacific,  and  Tuxtla  on  the  Atlantic, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  wings  of  a  vast  subterranean  gallery,  by 
which  the  waters  of  either  ocean,  may,  ultimately,  communicate 
with  Jorullo,  and  we  may  presume,  that  a  similar  state  of  things 
exists  with  respect  to  the  various  mountain  groups  of  Guatimala, 
Colombia  and  Chili. 

*  See  Am.  Jour.  Vol.  XIII,  page  108. 


VOLCANOS.  1 1 3 

It  does  not  appear  to  us  important  to  insist,  that  the  commu- 
nication supposed,  should,  in  every  case,  be  with  salt  water.  It 
is  true,  that  muriate  of  soda  is  frequently  sublimed  in  volcanos, 
and  we  may  generally  attribute  this  to  the  proximity  of,  or  at 
least  to  a  communication  with  the  sea.  But  those  great  effects,  for 
which  water  is  necessary  in  volcanos,  depend,  not  upon  the 
foreign  ingredients  it  may  chance  to  contain,  but  upon  its  action 
in  its  own  proper  character,  either  fluid  or  aeriform,  and  upon  the 
agency  of  its  elements.  It  would,  therefore  in  our  view,  not 
operate,  seriously,  against  the  reasoning  founded  upon  the  sup- 
posed presence  of  water,  if  volcanos  should  break  out,  or  be  dis- 
covered in  the  midst  of  our  greatest  continents.  We  are  always 
at  liberty  to  suppose  a  communication  with  water,  when  we  have 
so  much  evidence  of  its  existence  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  in 
caverns,  and  internal  lakes  and  springs,  and  rivers,  besides  the 
vast  stores  which  we  see  on  the  surface. 

As  to  the  extinct  volcanos  of  France  and  other  countries,  as 
neither  history  nor  tradition  reaches  to  the  period  of  their  activity, 
although  the  evidence  of  their  ancient  existence  is  unquestionable, 
we  may,  with  good  reason,  refer  their  origin,  at  least,  to  the  peri- 
od, when  the  countries  in  which  they  are  situated,  were  sub-ma- 
rine, or,  when  water  existed  abundantly,  on  the  surface,  in  natural 
hollows,  forming  lakes  and  inland  seas,  more  or  less  extensive.* 
But,  it  must  be  allowed,  that  water  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean, 
existing  under  an  enormous  pressure  of  we  know  not  how  many 
miles  of  fluid,  would  be  much  more  prone  to  reach  the  seat  of  ig- 
neous agency  through  the  natural  chinks  and  fissures,  by  which  the 
earth  is,  more  or  less,  intersected,  and  therefore,  this  is  an  addi- 
tional reason  to  prove,  that  the  oceanic  waters  are  principally  ac- 
tive in  producing  volcanos. 

It  does  not  however  follow,  that  the  volcano,  which  is  fed  by 
the  waters  of  the  ocean,  must,  of  course,,  be  submarine  ;  it  may 
break  out  either  through  the  communication,  by  which  the  water 

*  This  does  not  exclude  the  supposition,  that  some  of  these  volcanos  may  have 
continued  to  be  active  after  the  land  was  uncovered,  and  after  they  had  thus  ceased 
to  be  sub-marine. 

15 


114  VOLCANOS. 

was  admitted,  or  elsewhere,  under  the  sea  or  the  land,  according 
to  circumstances,  depending  upon  the  strength,  nature,  and  con- 
nexions of  the  superincumbent  strata. 

Professor  Daubeny  founds  his  explanation  of  the  causes  of  vol- 
canos,  upon  the  very  interesting  discovery  of  Sir  Humphrey  Da- 
vy, "  that  the  solid  constituents  of  our  globe  all  contain  some  in- 
flammable principle,  and  owe  their  present  condition  to  the  union 
of  this  principle  with  oxygen,"  and  he  thinks  it  by  no  means  im- 
probable, "  that  at  a  certain  depth,  beneath  the  surface,  at  which 
atmospheric  air  is  either  wholly  or  partially  excluded,  those  sub- 
stances may  still  exist  in  their  pure  unoxidized  state." 

As  they  do  not  and  cannot  exist,  at  the  surface  of  the  ground, 
no  analogous  phenomena  can  happen  under  our  observation, 
and  we  are,  therefore,  at  liberty  to  reason  strictly  with  reference 
to  the  known  action  of  the  subtances  in  question. 

Water  having  access  to  them,  would  be  decomposed,  great 
heat  would  be  generated,  sufficient  to  melt  the  rocks  and  the 
stony  matter,  formed  by  the  oxidizement  of  the  metalloids ;  im- 
mense quantities  of  gas  and  of  steam  would  be  thus  evolved,  and 
all  the  mechanical  effects  so  familiar  in  volcanic  eruptions  and 
earthquakes,  would  occur. 

The  composition  of  the  lava  of  That  of  Santa  Vennera,  Pied- 
Catania,  near  Etna,  asascer-  mont,  west  of  Etna,  is, 
tained  by  Dr.  Kennedy,  is, 

Silex,                         51.  50.75 

Alumina,                   19.  18.5 

Lime,                          9.5  10. 

Ox.  Iron,                    14.5  14.25 

Soda,                           4.  4. 

Muriatic  Acid,            1.  1. 

Prof.  Daubeny  has  reviewed  the  structure  and  mineralogical 
and  chemical  composition  of  the  volcanic  masses,  in  order  to 
shew  the  correspondence  of  facts,  with  the  theoretical  views 
which  he  has  adopted,  and  it  must  be  allowed,  that  he  has  so  far 
made  out  his  case,  that  there  appears  to  be  nothing  connected 
with  volcanos,  which  is  materially  at  variance  with  the  supposi- 
tion of  their  origin  from  metalloids,  acted  on  by  water. 


VOLCANOS.  Ho 

There  is  good  evidence  that  "  volcanos  have  universally  broken 
out  amongst  the  older  formations,  or  those  most  near  to  the  nu- 
cleus, whatever  it  may  be,  of  the  globe."  The  lavas  themselves 
appear  to  be  the  materials  of  primitive  rocks  altered  by  fire,  and 
the  accidentally  imbedded  fragments  are  portions  of  primitive 
rocks.  It  seems  to  be  irresistibly  inferred,  that  the  seat  of  vol- 
canic action  is  deep,  because  the  immense  masses  ejected  from 
such  mountains  as  Vesuvius  and  Etna  do  not  exhaust  them — be- 
cause the  materials  are  raised  to  a  vast  height,  as  at  Teneriffe 
and  Cotopaxi,  and  because  the  mountains  are  not  often  shatter- 
ed by  the  tremendous  explosions,  which  would  blow  up  any  su- 
perficial strata  into  the  air. 

Conclusion. — Theory  of  Volcanos. 

In  concluding  this  account  of  volcanic  phenomena,  and  of 
their  possible  and  probable  causes,  we  may  be  permitted  to 
observe — 

That  the  act  of  creative  energy,  admitted  alike  by  religion  and 
philosophy,  necessarily  implies  the  production  of  all  the  elements 
of  which  our  physical  universe  is  composed.  How  far  these  ele- 
ments were  originally  united  in  binary,  ternary,  or  still  more  com- 
plex combinations,  we  cannot  possibly  know.  The  revelation  of 
this  fact,  not  being  necessary  to  our  moral  direction,  has  been 
withheld  by  the  Creator,  and  we  know  only — that  "  In  the  begin- 
ning God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth."  As  to  the  actual 
condition  of  the  elements,  at  that  primeval  period,  science  may 
fairly  enquire,  and  is  justified  in  reasoning  within  the  limits  pre- 
scribed by  our  moral  condition  and  intellectual  powers. 

In  the  present  state  of  chemical  science,  our  elementary  bo- 
dies are  divided,  very  nearly,  between  the  two  classes,  combusti- 
bles and  metals,  which  really  form  but  one  class — and  those  agents, 
which  from  their  acting  with  peculiar  energy  upon  the  com- 
bustibles and  metals,  and  altering  their  properties,  are  called  by 
some,  supporters  of  combustion  ; — they  are  oxygen  and  chlorine, 
and  some  add  iodine.* 

*  There  seems  to  be  no  reason  for  mentioning  the  imaginary  body  called  fluorine. 


VOLCANOS. 

If  we  extend  the  idea  of  combustion,  as  several  authors  are 
disposed  to  do,  to  other  cases  of  intense  chemical  action,  especial- 
ly if  attended  with  the  extrication  of  light  and  heat,  we  shall  in- 
clude the  agency  of  the  combustibles  and  metals  upon  each  oth- 
er, as  well  as  upon  the  proper  supporters  of  combustion.  For 
our  present  purpose,  it  is  quite  immaterial  which  view  is  em- 
braced. 

If  we  suppose  that  the  first  condition  of  the  created  elements 
of  our  planet,  was  in  a  state  of  freedom  ;  the  globe  being  a  mass 
of  uncombined  combustibles  and  metals,  and  that  the  waters,  the 
atmosphere  and  chlorine,  and  iodine  and  perhaps  hydrogen  were 
suddenly  added ;  it  will  be  obvious,  from  what  we  know  of  the 
properties  of  these  elements,  that  the  reaction,  awakening  energies 
before  dormant,  .would  produce  a  general  and  intense  ignition, 
and  a  combustion  of  the  whole  surface  of  the  planet.  Potassi- 
um, sodium  and  phosphorous  would  first  blaze,  and  would  im- 
mediately communicate  the  heat  necessary  to  bring  on  the  action 
between  the  other  metals  and  combustibles,  in  relation  to  the 
oxygen  and  chlorine,  and  in  relation  to  each  other.  Thus  a 
general  conflagration  would  be  the  very  first  step  in  chemical 
action. 

In  this  manner  might  be  formed  the  fixed  alkalies,  the  earths 
and  stones  and  rocks, — the  metallic  oxides  properly  so  called — 
the  sulphurets  and  phosphurets  of  the  metals — the  carburet  of 
iron — the  acids,  including  the  muriatic,  and  ultimately  the  salts, 
and  chlorides,  alkaline,  earthy  and  metallic,  and  many  other 
compounds  resulting  either  from  a  primary  or  secondary  action. 

In  such  circumstances,  there  would  also  be  great  commotion 
— steam,  vapors  and  gases  would  be  suddenly  evolved  in  vast 
quantities,  and  with  explosive  violence;  the  imponderable  agents, 
heat,  light,  electricity,  and  magnetism,  and  attraction,  in  various 
forms,  would  be  active  in  an  inconceivable  degree,  and  the  re- 
cently oxidated  crust  of  the  earth  would  be  torn  with  violence, 
producing  fissures  and  caverns,  dislocations  and  contortions,  and 
obliquity  of  strata ;  and  it  would  every  where  bear  marks  of  an 
energy  then  general,  but  now  only  local,  and  occasional.  It  is 


VOLCANOS.  117 

however  obvious,  that  this  intense  action  would  set  bounds  to 
itself;  and  that  the  chemical  combinations  would  cease,  when 
the  crust  of  incombustible  matter  thus  formed,  had  become  suffi- 
ciently thick  and  firm,  to  protect  the  metals  and  combustibles, 
beneath,  from  the  water  and  the  air,  and  other  active  agents. 

As  we  are  not  now  giving  a  theory  of  the  earth,  but  merely 
stating  the  conditions  of  a  problem,  we  forbear  to  descant  up- 
on many  obvious  collateral  topics,  or  to  pursue  the  primitive  rock 
formations,  through  the  vicissitudes  which  might  have  attended 
them.  We  do  not  even  say,  that  we  believe  that  such  events 
as  we  have  endeavored  to  describe,  did  actually  happen;  we 
say  only  that  their  existence  is  consistent  with  the  known  prop- 
erties of  the  chemical  elements,  and  with  the  physical  laws  of 
our  planet.  Supposing  that  such  was  the  actual  progress  of 
things,  it  is  obvious  that  the  oxidated  crust  of  the  globe,  would 
still  cover  a  nucleus  consisting  of  metallic  and  inflammable  mat- 
ter. Of  course,  whenever  air  and  water,  or  saline  and  acid  flu- 
ids, might  chance  to  penetrate  to  this  internal  magazine,  the 
same  violent  action  which  we  have  already  supposed  to  have 
happened  upon  the  surface,  would  recur,  and  the  confinement 
and  pressure  of  the  incumbent  strata,  increasing  the  effects  a 
thousand  fold,  would  necessarily  produce  the  phenomena  of  earth- 
quakes and  volcanos. 

Still,  it  is  equally  obvious,  that  every  recurrence  of  such  events, 
must  oxidize  the  earth  deeper  and  deeper,  and  if  the  point  should 
ever  be  attained,  when  water  or  air  ceased  to  reach  the  inflam- 
mable nucleus,  or  the  nucleus  were  all  oxidized,  the  phenomena 
must  cease,  and  every  approximation  towards  this  point  would 
render  them  less  frequent. 

Does  this  correspond  with  the  actual  history  of  these  events  ? 
Are  they  now  less  frequent,  than  in  the  early  ages  of  our  plan- 
et ?  The  extensive  regions,  occupied  by  rocks  of  acknowledged 
igneous  origin,  but  where  fire  is  not  now  active,  would  seem  to 
favor  this  idea,  but  the  answer  to  this  question  must  depend  so 
much  upon  the  theoretical  views  entertained  of  the  formation  of 
granite,  and  of  the  other  primitive  rocks,  that  it  may  be  impos- 
sible, at  present,  to  bring  it  to  a  decision. 


118  VOLCANOS. 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  hypothesis  now  detailed,  may 
we  not  suppose,  with  sufficient  probability,  that  those  Voltaic 
powers  which  we  know  to  exist — whose  action  we  can  command, 
and  whose  effects,  having  been  first, observed  within  the  memo- 
ry of  the  present  generation,  now  fill  us  with  astonishment,  arc 
constantly  active  in  producing  the  phenomena  of  earthquakes 
and  volcanos. 

Arrangements  of  metals  and  fluids  are  the  common  means  by 
which  we  evolve  this  wonderful  power,  in  our  laboratories ;  and 
it  would  seem  that  nothing  more  than  juxta  position,  in  a  certain 
order,  is  necessary  to  the  effect.  Even  substances  apparently 
dry  and  inert,  with  respect  to  each  other,  will  produce  a  perma- 
nent, and  in  proportion  to  the  means  employed,  a  powerful  ef- 
fect ;  as  in  the  columns  of  De  Luc  and  Zamboni.  It  would  seem 
indeed,  that  metals  and  fluids  are  not  necessary  to  the  effect. 
Arrangements  of  almost  any  substances  that  are  of  different  na- 
tures, will  cause  the  evolution  of  this  power.  Whoever  has  wit- 
nessed the  overwhelming  brilliancy  and  intense  energy  of  the 
great  galvanic  combinations,  especially  of  the  deflagrator  of  Dr. 
Hare,  and  considers  how  very  trifling,  in  extent,  are  our  largest 
combinations  of  apparatus,  compared  with  those  natural  arrange- 
ments of  earths,  salts,  metals  and  fluids,  which  we  know  to  exist 
in  the  earth,  in  circumstances  similar  to  those,  which,  in  our 
laboratories,  are  effectual  in  causing  this  power  to  appear,  will 
not  be  slow  to  believe,  that  it  may  be  in  the  earth,  perpetually 
evolved  and  perpetually  renewed ;  and  now  mitigated,  suppres- 
sed or  revived,  according  to  circumstances  influencing  the  par- 
ticular state  of  things  at  particular  places. 

In  our  laboratories,  we  see  emanating  from  this  source,  intense 
light,  irresistible  heat,  magnetism  in  great  energy,  and  above  all, 
a  decomposing  power,  which  commands  equally  all  the  elements 
and  the  proximate  principles  in  all  their  combinations. 

Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  after  discovering  that  the  supporters  of 
combustion  and  the  acids,  were  all  evolved  at  the  positive  pole, 
and  the  combustibles  and  metals,  and  their  oxidated  products, 
at  the  negative — proved,  that  even  the  firmest  rocks  and  stones 
could  not  resist  this  power,  their  immediate  principles  and  ele- 


VOLCANOS.  119 

ments  being  separated  by  its  energy.  The  decomposition  of 
the  alkalies,  earths,  and  other  metallic  oxides  being  a  direct  and 
now  familiar  effect  of  Voltaic  energy — their  metals  being  set  at 
liberty,  and  being  combustible  both  in  air  and  water — elastic 
agents  produced  by  this  power,  and  rarefied  by  heat,  being  also 
attendant  on  these  decompositions,  it  would  seem  that  the  first 
principles  are  fully  established  by  experiment,  and  that  nothing 
is  hypothetical,  but  the  application  to  the  phenomena  of  earth- 
quakes and  volcanos. 

It  appears  an  important  recommendation  of  the  present  view, 
that  causes  are  here  provided  which  admit  of  indefinite  contin- 
uance, and  of  unlimited  renovation.  There  appears  no  reason 
why,  on  the  whole,  the  phenomena  should  cease,  as  long  as  the 
earth  exists.  It  has  therefore  the  great  Newtonian  requisites  of 
a  good  theory  ;  its  principles  are  true,  and  it  is  sufficient. 

It  has  this  additional  advantage — it  embraces  all  that  is  possi- 
ble in  former  theories.  Coal,  lignite,  sulphur  and  petroleum, 
and  fermenting  pyrites,  will  all  conspire  with  the  great  opera- 
tions, at  which  we  have  so  briefly  hinted.  Burnt  substances  will 
return  again  to  their  combustible  condition,  and  combustibles  will 
burn  anew,  in  unlimited  succession.  Heat,  light,  electricity,  mag- 
netism, decompositions  and  recompositions  without  limit  and  with- 
out number, — the  evolution  of  elastic  fluids  in  boundless  quantities, 
and  all  the  violent  mechanical  effects,  which  their  action  is  known 
to  produce;  these  are  among  the  known  and  familiar  effects  of 
this  power,  and  all  the  materials,  necessary  to  render  it  active, 
are  existing  in  the  earth,  on  a  scale  of  immense  extent.  These 
suggestions  might  be  fortified  by  many  particulars.  At  present 
they  are  thrown  out,  as  leading,  although  not  entirely  original 
thoughts.* 

*  The  present  hypothesis  does  not  exclude  the  subsequent  action  of  water,  in 
dissolving  chemically,  or  disintegrating  mechanically,  the  crust  of  the  globe.  If  that 
which  is  described  in  the  text,  were  the  first  state  of  the  planet  as  it  came  from  the 
hand  of  the  Creator,  the  next  step,  as  we  certainly  know,  was  to  surround  it  with 
water;  and  then,  water,  fire,  and  all  the  great  chemical  agents  cooperating;  all  that 
has  been  detailed  in  the  preceding  sketch  would  seem  to  follow,  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence. 


120  SUMMARY. 


SUMMARY. 

1.  In  the  beginning,  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
and  established  the  physical  laws,*  by  which  the  material  world 
was  to  be  governed. 

2.  The  earliest  condition  of  the  surface  of  our  planet,  of  which 
we  have  any  certain  knowledge,]  was  that  of  a  dark  abyss  of  wa- 
ters, of  unknown  depth  and  continuance. 

3.  The  structure  of  the  crust  of  the  planet  affords  decisive  ev- 
idence of  a  series  of  events,  in  relation  both  to  the  formation  of 
rocks,  and  to  the  creation  and  succession  of  organized   bodies 
of  which  many  of  them  contain  such  astonishing  quantities. 

4.  Time,  and  order  of  time;  event;  succession  and  revolution 
are  plainly  recorded  in  the  earth  ;  and   no  history  or  tradition 
contradicts  the  supposition,  that   the  events  involved  both  time 
and  order  of  time. 

5.  Geology  cannot  decide  on  the   amount  of  time,  but  con- 
cludes that  there  was  enough  to  cover  all  the  events  connected 
with  the  formation  of  the  mineral  masses,  and  with  a  great  many 
generations  of  living  beings,  whose  remains  are  found  preserved 
in  the  strata. 

6.  The  deepest  rocks — the  foundations  upon  which  the  others 
repose — being  mainly  crystaline,  bearing  marks  of  a  chemical 
origin,  and  being  destitute  of  fragments,  and  of  organized  re- 
mains, are  regarded  as  the  oldest,  and  are  called  primitive. 

7.  The  rocks,  called  transition,  are  partly  chemical  and  crys- 
taline, and  partly  mechanical,  and  include  remains  of  plantsj  and 


*  Beautifully  styled  in  sacred  writ,  "  the  ordinances  of  heaven." 

t  We  do  not  exclude  the  hypothesis  of  an  original  action  of  fire;  it  is  not  material 

to  decide  whether  the  very  first  agency,  was  igneous  or  aqueous ;  it  seems  certain, 

that  they  were,  very  early,  coexistent. 
t  Wood  and  terrestrial  plants  are  found  in  most  rocks,  from  the  old  red  sandstone 

upwards,  and  in  fact,  in  the  order  of  rocks  immediately  beneath,  i.  e.  the  transition; 

proving  that  dry  land  must  have  existed,  more  or  less,  previous  to,  or  at  the  time  of 

the  formation  of  most  of  these  rocks.    We  may  suppose,  therefore,  that  ponds,  lakes 

and  rivers,  existed  also, — De  La  Heche's  View. 


SUMMARY.  121 

marine  animals,*  and  fragments  of  the  primitive  rocks  upon 
which  they  lie. 

8.  The  rocks,  called  secondary,  include  also  chemical  depos- 
its, but  less  numerous  and  distinct,  and  their  character  is  pro- 
gressively more  and  more  mechanical. 

9.  They  contain  numerous  remains  of  plants  and  animals,  in 
an  entombed,  and  generally  in  a  mineralized  condition. 

10.  The  organized  deposits  of  the  transition  and   secondary 
formations,  belong  to  the  primitive  ocean,  and  prove  that  rocks 
were  forming,  by  mineral  laws,  at  the  same  time,  that  plants 
and  animals  were  called  into  being,  lived  and  died,  and  many  of 
them  were  enclosed  in  the  concreting. rocks. 

11.  The  existence  of  a  universal  primitive  ocean  is  certain,  and 
it  was  without  a  shore,  till  its  diminution  uncovered  the  tops  of 
the  highest  mountains,  and  successively  the  lower  elevations,  and 
finally,  such  of  the  plains  and  valleys  as  were  then  formed. 

12.  Its  retreat  was  gradual,  and  proceeded  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  be  consistent  with  the  due  arrangement  of  the  earth's  crust 
and  surface,  and  with  the  progressive  creation,  life,  death  and  se- 
pulture, of  animals  and  plants. 

1 3.  Near  the  period  of  the  earliest  transition  rocks,  we  find  the 
beginning  of  the  anthracite  coal — perhaps  a  mineral  creation — 
but,  being  associated  with  distinct  impressions  and  remains  of 
vegetables,  and  containing   even  fibrous  charcoal,!  we  cannot 
deny  an  intimate  connexion  between  the  anthracite  and  the  com- 
mencement of  vegetable  life. 

14.  The  earlier  animals  are  referred  to  a  period  not  remote 
from  this,  and  the  transition  and  earlier  secondary  rocks  contain 
abundance  of  encrinites,  madrepores,  molluscous"  shell  fish,  trilo- 
bites,  orthocerae,  and  other  races,  chiefly  (as  far  as  we  know)  ex- 
tinct.}: 

*The  terebratulae  have  continued  nearly  without  interruption,  from  the  transition 
limestone,  to  the  present  time. — De  La  JBeche. 

t  Which  abounds  in  the  anthracite  of  Pennsylvania. 

t  It  cannot  be  expected,  that  every  minor  division  of  a  formation  should  contain  its 
peculiar  fossil,  which  shall,  at  the  same  time,  be  characteristic  of  it,  at  great  distan- 

16 


1 22  SUMMARY. 

15.  The  earlier  fragmentary  rocks,   make  their  appearance 
soon  after  the  primitive,  indicating,  that  mechanical  causes — 
sometimes  violent — were  producing  their  effects. 

16.  It  would  appear,  from  the  relics  of  the  periods  immediate- 
ly succeeding, that  vegetation  had  increased  prodigiously  upon  the 
earth,  and  that  there  were  even  trees  and  forests  upon  those  parts 
of  the  surface,  that  had  become  sufficiently  dry. 

17.  Bituminous  coal,  belonging  to  the  era  of  the  earlier  secon- 
dary, seems  now  to  have  been  formed,  as  there  is  great  reason 
to  believe,  from  submerged  and  inhumed  wood,  and  other  vege- 
tables, whose  vestiges  are  so  numerous  in  the  coal  mines. 

1 8.  Coal,  being  peculiarly  limited  in  its  local  relations,  and  of- 
ten contained  in  basins,  it  seems  probable,  that  it  generally  arose 
from  local  circumstances,  with  all  its  alternating  and  attendant 
strata  of  shales,  sandstones,  limestones,  clays,  iron  ores,  pudding- 
stones,  &c. ;  and,  as  these  depositions  are  often  repeated  several 
times,  in  the  same  coal  basin,   and  the  mines  are  occasionally 
worked  to  a  great  depth,  (even  to  twelve  hundred  feet,  in  some 
places  in  England)  it  is  plain  that  no  sudden  and  transient  event, 
like  the  delude,  could  have  produced  such  deposits,  although  it 
might  bury  wood  arid  trees,  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  might 
approximate  to  the  condition  of  lignite  or  bituminized,  or  par- 
tially mineralized  wood,  which  is  often  found  under  circumstan- 
ces, indicating  a  diluvial  origin. 

19.  We  find,  in  the  strata  of  this  period,  not  only  great  abun- 
dance of  shells,  (bivalves,  univalves,  &c. ;)  but  in  the  later,  and 
sometimes  in  the  middle  secondary  strata,  oviparous  animals,  in- 
cluding several  gigantic  species  of  crocodiles*  and  other  saurian 
amphibia. 


ces  • — the  general  resemblance  of  the  organic  remains,  contained  in  the  more  recent 
rocks,  is  a  better  guide  than  any  fossils,  supposed  to  be  characteristic;  though  the 
latter  become  more  valuable,  as  we  descend  in  the  series ;  the  older  rocks  being 
much  more  uniform  in  their  fossil  contents,  in  parts  of  the  world,  far  distant  from 
each  other,  than  the  more  modern. — De  La  Heche's  View. 

*  The  crocodile  has  been  continued,  perhaps,  from  the  new  red  sandstone — cer- 
tainly from  the  lias  to  the  present  time — and,  as  its  remains  often  occur  in  the  inter- 
val, the  crocodile  appears  to  have  been  a  tolerably  constant  inhabitant  of  our  globe. 


SUMMARY.  123 

20.  In  the  secondary  strata,  above  the  bituminous  coal,*  we 
h'nd  perfect  fish.     Nothing  can  be  finer  in  this  way,  than  the 
ichthyolites,  found  in  the  lias  limestone  of    England,  and  in 
the  calcareous  marl  of  Mount  Bolca,  near  Verona,  in  which  place, 
there  are  stated  to  be  one  hundred  and  five  species.t     They 
are  numerous,  at  Beyroot,  in  Palestine,']:  at  Sunderland,  (Mass.) 
on  Connecticut  river,  and  in  many  other  places. 

21.  Birds  are  very  rare  in  the  fossil  state.     Their  habits  would 
expose  them,  very  little,  to  those  accidents,  fry  which  the  other 
organized  beings  were  so  abundantly  inhumed,  for  even  aquatic 
birds,  have  their  nests  on  shore. 

It  is,  however,  remarkable,  that  in  the  recent  secondary,  and 
the  tertiary,  we  first  find  remains  of  birds ;  they  come  in,  in  the 
strata,  at  the  time  when,  we  may  presume,  that  the  state  of  the 
planet  admitted  of  their  existence. 

22.  The  loose  materials,  that  cover  the  rocks,  more  or  less,  in 
every  country,  are  attributable  chiefly  to  the  wearing  effects  of 
agents,  operating,  in  all  time,  to  produce  disintegration  and  de- 
composition. 

23.  The  primitive  ocean  appears  to  have  had  a  greater  agency 
than   any  other  cause,  in   producing  and  rounding  the  bowlder 
stones  and  pebbles,  and  fragmentary  materials,  whether  consoli- 
dated or  loose ;  but  the  diluvial  ocean,  and  the  present  ocean 


since  its  first  appearance  on  the  surface.  The  fossil  crocodile  appears  to  have  been 
an  inhabitant  of  fresh  water,  and  of  rivers,  as  at  present.  In  the  West  Indies,  the 
crocodiles  frequent  muddy,  and  sometimes  brackish  ponds,  and  in  shallow  water, 
they  often  remain  for  hours,  with  the  tips  of  their  noses  out  of  water.  The  organi- 
zation and  habits  of  crocodiles,  do  not  enable  them  to  contend  with  the  agitations  of 
the  sea,  which  they  shun.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  organization  of  the 
ichthyosaurus  would  enable  him  to  swim  in  the  waves. — De  La  Heche's  View. 

*  Fragments  of  fish  are  stated  to  be  found  even  in  earlier  strata. — De  La  Beche'» 
View. 

T  Thirty-nine  species  are  said  to  come  from  the  Asiatic  seas,  three  from  the  Afri- 
can, eighteen  from  South  America,  and  eleven  from  North  America — but  in  this  dis- 
tribution, imagination  may  have  had  a  share,  the  resemblance  being,  perhaps,  gene- 
ric, rather  than  specific. 

t  Am.  Jour.  Vol.  X.  pa.  28. 


124  SUMMARY. 

and  seas,  and  waters,  of  every  kind,  including  lakes,  rivers,  and 
rain  and  snow  floods,  and  currents,  operate  in  the  same  man- 
ner, and  in  the  direct  and  combined  proportion  of  time  and  energy 
of  movement. 

24.  The  actual  disposition  and  arrangement  of  the  loose  mate- 
rials, as  we  now  see  them,  is  to  be  attributed,  chiefly,  to  the  dilu- 
vial ocean — no  other  cause  being  capable  of  reaching  the  re- 
gions remote  from,  and  elevated  above  the  present  great  waters 
of  the  globe. 

25.  The  arrangement  of  the  loose  materials,  on  shores,  and  in 
outlets,  and  in  regions  occasionally  flooded,  is,  at  least  to  some 
depth,  and  to  some  extent,  to  be  referred  to  agencies  now  in  op- 
eration. 

26.  Some  materials  are  undergoing  consolidation,  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  present  times;  but,  the  masses  thus  produced,  are 
limited  and  accidental,  and  are  easily  known  by  their  loose  and 
porous  character,  and  generally  by  their  want  of  firmness.    They 
belong,  for  the  greater  part,  to  the  tufas — the  fragments  and  acci- 
dentals aggregates,  being  often  cemented  by  infiltration  of  carbo- 
nate of  lime,  oxide  of  iron,  or  other  substances  ;  there  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  distinguishing  them  from  the  early  formations. 

27.  Volcanic  deposits  obey  no  law ;  they  are  found  wherever 
subterranean  fire  has  accumulated  sufficient  power,  to  force  a 
passage  through  the  incumbent  masses,  and  the  lava,  in  fusion 
and  ignition,  flows  over  every  thing,  and  in  every  direction,  qua 
data  porta. 

28.  The  trap  rocks  and  many  of  the  porphyries,  and  the  ex- 
tensive deposits  of  ancient  trachytic  rocks,  have  the  same  acci- 
dental position,  and  occasionally  cover  any  thing,  and  every  thing, 
from  granite  to  coal,  and  clay,  and  gravel,  but  appear  to  have 
abounded  most  in  the  earlier  periods. 

29.  The  analogies  which  favor  the  opinion  of  their  igneous,  but 
principally  sub-marine*  and  often  subterraneous  origin, are  numer- 
ous and  strong,  and  the  admission  of  this  fact,  militates  in  no  degree, 
against  the  prevalence  and  peculiar  effects  of  the  primitive  ocean. 

*  Chiefly  under  the  ancient  ocean. 


SUMMARY. 

30.  In  the  like  manner,  any  rock,  for  whose  ignigenous  origin, 
derived  from  an  examination  of  its  character,  contents  and  posi- 
tion, there  appears  sufficient  evidence,  may  be  referred  to  that 
cause,  in   perfect  consistency  with  the  early  and  indispensable 
dominion  of  water. 

31.  Thus  the  two  great  theories,  that  have  so  long  divided  ge- 
ologists, may  be  made  to  harmonize,  and  nothing  more  remains 
than  the  perhaps  superfluous  task  of  settling  the  balance  of  pow- 
er between  them,  and  their  auxiliaries,  namely,  pressure  and  the 
other  modes  of  mechanical  action,  and  the  agency  of  the  impon- 
derable elements,  which  are  closely  connected  with  heat. 

32.  It  is  not  necessary  even  to  exclude  the  supposition  that  ig- 
nition and  fusion  may  have  preceded  the  period  when  the  primitive 
ocean  brooded   over  the  planet,  and  as  there  is  incontrovertible 
evidence  of  the  ancient,  as  well  as  continued  and  present  preva- 
lence of  internal  fire,  it  is  clearly  possible,  that  it  might  have  been 
in  operation,  as  early  as  there  were  any  materials  upon  which 
it  could  act.*     It  seems  therefore  a  matter  of  little  importance, 
whether  the  fire  was  kindled  before  or  after  water  was  poured  round 
the  globe.    It  is  certain  that  they  have  maintained  their  separate 
dominion  ever  since,  although  with  occasional  coalition,   and 
with  great  vibrations  in  the  balance  of  power. 

********** 
It  would  appear  from  a  notice  in  the  public  journals,  that  Pro- 
fessor Leslie  considers  it  as  certain,  that  the  density  of  bodies  in- 
creases as  we  descend  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  that  air  at 
the  depth  of  thirty-three  miles  and  three  fourths,  would  have  the 
density  of  water,  and  the  density  of  quicksilver  at  one  hundred 
and  ninety-seven  miles,  that  marble  would  have  its  density  doubled 
at  two  hundred  and  eigthy  seven  miles,  &c. 

It  is  inferred  that  if  the  globe  were  solid,  that  its  density  would 
far  exceed  that  of  5.  and  therefore,  it  is  supposed  that  the  earth 
must  be  hollow  or  cavernous. 

The  application  of  these  opinions  to  some  of  the  views  which 
have  been  presented  in  the  preceding  sketch  is  obvious;  they  pro- 

*  See  the  theory  of  volcanos  in  this  sketch,  page  98. 


126  CONCLUSION. 

vide  for  the  high  specific  gravity  of  the  earth,  not  only  in  consisten- 
cy with  the  existence  of  caverns ;  but  caverns  (a  vast  cavern,)  are 
necessary  to  the  theory.  The  learned  author,  as  is  stated,  im- 
agines that  these  caverns  are  filled  with  "concentrated  light, 
which  when  embodied,  constitutes  elemental  heat  or  fire,"  and 
the  elasticity  of  this  light  is  supposed  to  prevent  the  collapse  of 
the  walls  of  the  cavity.  On  the  latter  very  extraordinary  sugges- 
tion, not  having  seen  the  author's  own  statement,  we  offer  no 
opinion. 

Conclusion. 

It  will  be  seen,  that  the  only  point  in  which  the  view,  presented  in 
the  preceding  sketch,  differs  from  the  common  understanding  of 
the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation  is,  not  in  the  order  of  the  events, 
but  in  the  amount  of  time,  which  they  are  supposed  to  have  occupi- 
ed before  the  creation  of  man  ;  every  thing  since  that  event,  being 
understood  according  to  the  received  chronology.  In  the  prefatory 
remarks  I  have  expressed  the  opinion,  that  there  is  no  real  incon- 
sistency between  the  Mosaic  history,  and  the  actual  structure  of  the 
earth.  As  I  understand  the  account  there  is  not, but,  on  the  present 
occasion,  I  shall  not  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  that  part  of  the 
subject;  believing  that  the  period  is  not  distant,  when  Geology  will 
be  admitted  into  the  train  of  her  elder  sister  Astronomy,  and  that 
both,  however  regarded  while  they  were  imperfectly  understood, 
will  be  eventually  hailed,  as  friends  and  allies  of  revealed  religion, 

REMARK. 

In  giving  the  limits  of  the  Tertiary,  it  should  have  been  stated, 
that  it  is  always  newer  than  the  chalk  and  in  England  and  France, 
lies  upon  it. 

O*  The  "  author"  referred  to  without  name,  in  the  preceding  pages,  is  Mr.  Bake- 
well,  to  the  3d  Edition  of  whose  Geology  this  "outline"  was  added  as  an  appendix. 


NOTE.— CORRECTION,  p.  56. 

The  Megalosaurus  is  found  in  limestones  and  sandstones  lying  higher  than  the 
lias,  and  the  ichthyosaurus  and  plesiosaurus  are  fpund  also  in  many  of  the  strata 
above,  and  in  some  of  those  below  the  lias. — Comparison  with  De  La  Eeche's  View. 


INDEX. 


ABYSS,  aqueous,  25,  26. 
Action,  diluvial,  77. 
Aeriform  fluids,  69. 
Agency,  igneous,  29. 
Agents,  chemical,  26 ;  alluvial,  60. 
America,  North,  5. 
Analogies,  67. 

Animals,  extinct,  90 ;  gigantic,  63 ;  tes- 
taceous, 57, 

Arrangement  of  Diluvial,  &c.  124. 
Avulsions,  19. 

Banks,  19. 

Bible,  not  a  book  of  physics,  7. 

Birds,  rare  in  rocks,  123. 

Bodies,  organic,  in  transition,  45. 

Bones,  in  diluvium,  &c.  63. 

Boring,  16. 

Bowlders  and  pebbles,  origin  of,  123. 

Canals,  17. 
Catastrophe,  58. 

Coal,  anthracite,  121;  bituminous,  122. 
Combustibles,  agency  of,  107. 
Conclusion,  126. 

Constitution  of  rocks,  primitive,  25 ;  trans- 
ition, 41 ;  secondary,  53. 
Correction,  126. 
Creator,  final  cause,  30. 
Creation,  7 ;  progressive,  50. 
Crocodiles,  ancient,  122. 
Crust  of  the  earth,  11. 
Crystalization  of  primitive  rocks,  38. 
Crystals  in  do.  38. 

Defiles,  19. 

Deluge,  facts  not  belonging  to,  6 ;  phys- 
ical causes,  68 ;  characters  of,  73 ;  phys- 
ical effects  of,  84 ;  extinction  of  races 
by,  93. 

Derbyshire,  peak  of,  46. 

Diluvial,  60 ;  action,  77. 

Diluvium,  mineral,  85 ;  animal  and  ve- 
getable, 88. 

Disorder  of  the  strata,  23. 

Distinction,  tertiary,  diluvial,  60. 

Drainage  of  primitive  ocean,  97. 


Earth,  order  in  the,  40;  redemption  of 
from  water,  40. 

Earthquakes,  their  cause,  109;  connect- 
ed with  volcanic  operations,  110. 

Eruptions,  volcanic,  105 ;  intervals  be- 
tween, 106. 

Extent  of  geological  research,  11. 

Extinct  races,  46. 

Extinction  of  animal  races,  93. 

Facts,  geology  founded  on,  5. 
Fashion  in  geology,  3. 
Fire  and  water,  5 ;  internal,  36. 
Fluids,  aeriform,  69. 

Fragmentary  rocks  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Boston,  43 ;  transition,  their  position,  44. 
Fragments  in  early  rocks,  42. 
Fruits  of  geological  observations,  22. 

Genesis,  consistent  with  geology,  7. 

Geology,  object  of,  2 ;  philosophy  of,  3 ; 
primitive  and  speculative,  9 ;  a  science, 
12;  modes  of  investigating,  ibid;  its 
principles  simple,  47. 

Gigantic  animals,  63. 

Gneiss,  34. 

Granite  of  Christiania,  32. 

Gravel,  60. 

Harmony  of  theories,  125. 
Hot  springs,  112. 
Hypothesis,  instances  of,  10. 

Ichthyolites  of  Bolca,  10,  123 ;  of  English 
Lias,  123 ;  of  Sunderland,  Mass.,  123. 
Ichthyosaurus,  56. 

Knowledge  of  the  earth,  sources  and  lim- 
its of,  11. 

Lakes,  eruption  of  in  Vermont,  81. 

Landslips,  19. 

Lava,  its  composition,  114. 

Limits  of  our  geological  knowledge,  11. 

Loam,  60. 

Maclure,  William,  5. 


128 


INDEX. 


Magnetism,  imaginary  cause  of,  10. 

Marbles  transition,  42. 

Materials  of  the  globe,  their  solubility,  27. 

Mechanical  and  chemical  effects,  39. 

Megalosaurus,  56. 

Metals  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  116 ; 

do  they  prevail  in  the  globe,  15. 
Mines,  greatest  depth,  16. 
Mobility,  chemical,  25. 
Mosaic  account  of  deluge,  74. 
Mountains,  height  of  at  the  deluge,  74. 

Name  of  primitive  rocks,  33 ;  secondary, 

53 ;  transition,  48. 

Notch  of  White  Mountains,  slides  in,  20. 
Nucleus  of  the  globe,  14. 

Obliquity  of  strata,  13. 

Order,  general,  22. 

Organized  bodies  in  transition  rocks,  45 ; 

secondary,  55. 
Oysters,  beds  of,  91. 

Penn,  Mr.,  75. 

Phenomena,  volcanic,  103. 

Plants,  less  numerous  in  rocks  than  an- 
imals, 56 ;  their  early  origin,  41. 

Plesiosaurus,  56. 

Pororoca  of  the  Amazon,  78. 

Position  of  transition  rocks,  44 ;  primitive, 
31 ;  secondary.  51. 

Power,  Voltaic  agency  in  volcanos,  119. 

Precipices,  19. 

Preservation  of  vegetables,  94. 

Primitive  rocks,  25. 

Progression  in  rocks,  51. 

Providence,  events  at  in  1815, 83. 

Pyrites,  agency  in  volcanos,  103. 

Races,  extinct,  46. 

Ramsgate,  effect  of  a  wave  at,  83. 

Redemption  of  the  earth  gradual,  49. 

Remains,  human,  88 ;  animal,  petrified, 
67 ;  animal  and  vegetable,  90. 

Revolution,  65. 

Rivers,  18. 

Roads,  17. 

Rocks,  primitive,  25 ;  their  position,  31 ; 
contain  no  organized  remains,  31 ;  in- 
clined, 33;  epoch  of  their  deposition, 
35 ;  prohable  origin,  37 ;  transition,  41 ; 
secondary,  51 ;  their  position,  51 ;  name, 
53. 


Sand,  60. 

Secondary  rocks,  51 ;  organized  remains 
in  55. 

Slate,  micaceous,  34. 

Slides,  19;  in  the  Alps  20;  in  the  White 
mountains,  20;  in  the  Green  moun- 
tains, 80. 

Specific  gravity  of  the  earth,  its  possible 
cause,  15. 

Springs,  hot,  112. 

Strata,  obliquity  of,  13 ;  horizontal,  13. 

Stromboli,  105. 

Subsidence  of  the  diluvial  ocean,  95 ;  of 
the  primitive,  96. 

Summary  of  Geology,  120. 

Temperature,  its  effects  on  solution,  28. 

Tertiary,  60. 

Theories  of  volcanos  106 — 115. 

Time,  order  and  progress  of,  120. 

Transition  rocks,  41 ;  character,  41 ;  name, 

48. 

Transportation,  59. 

Trap  rocks,  their  possible  origin,  29,  36. 
Trees,  in  alluvial,  63. 
Trilobite,  (note,)  48. 
Tunnels,  17. 

Valleys,  19. 

Vegetables,  preservation  of,  94. 

Vibration,  communication  of,  111. 

Vibrations,  subterranean,  111. 

View,  comparative,  75. 

Volcanic  power,  71. 

Volcanos,  submarine,  29 ;  eruption  of  105; 
theories  of  origin,  106—115;  general 
view  of,  98 ;  definition  of,  99 ;  writers 
on,  99;  extinct,  100. 

Water,  its  agency  in  volcanos,  112 ;  its 
connexion  with  volcanos,  113. 

Waters,  adaptation  to  different  forms  of 
life, 66;  their  rise,  altitude  and  time,  76. 

Wells,  their  depth,  16. 

Werner,  fashion  to  decry,  3 ;  his  proba- 
ble views,  5. 

Wernerian  arrangement,  4. 

Whale,  skeleton  on  mountain,  99. 

Wood,  its  early  origin,  120. 

Wye,  tides  in  the,  79. 


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